Adopted Sister part 3
by janeysf03
Summary: What happens when Sam and Dean have an adopted sister.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

White… At first all she saw was white. She was afraid it was the room that the angels had tortured her in but then she noticed the beeping sound of the medical equipment next to her bed.

"Ms. Ms. Stay calm. You have to stay calm." A nurse said rushing to Sarah's side.

"Where… am I?" Sarah whispered, her throat sore and dry.

"Sh… take it easy. You are in Sweetwater Medical Center. You have been in a coma."

"How long?" Sarah croaked out.

"2 months."

Sarah stayed in the hospital another week before her strength returned enough for her to leave. She set about trying to find everyone.

Her first stop was to Singer Salvage yard to see Bobby and find out what all happened.

She walked up to the door and knocked, not knowing what to expect. Slowly the door opened to reveal Bobby, standing, no longer confined to his wheelchair.

"Bobby? How…" She asked surprised.

"Sarah? Where have you been?" He asked warily.

"I've been in a coma for the last two months. How are you able to walk?" She asked walking inside.

Bobby handed her a beer and waited for her to take a sip before letting out a sigh of relief and pulling her into a hug.

"Oh girlie, I'm so glad you're alright. I was so worried about you."

"I missed you too, Bobby." She said as she hugged him back. "Now are you going to fill me in? The last thing I saw Lucifer was winning but it doesn't seem like this is hell on earth. So what happened?"

Bobby grabbed one of his whiskey bottles and took a swig.

"Bobby, what happened? Where's Sam?"

"That fool did it. He got control of the devil and jumped in the pit." He said taking another swig.

"Oh." She said grabbing the bottle from him and taking a swig herself. "Did Dean say yes to Michael?"

"No. We were able to keep him from doing that but their other brother…"

"Adam?" Sarah asked surprised. "He's dead."

"Zachariah, brought him back and he said yes."

"What happened to…"

"He jumped in the pit with Sam."

"So Sam and Adam are both in the pit?"

"Yep." He answered slowly taking another swig.

"Um… what about… Dean?" she asked slowly. "Last I saw, Lucifer was beating him."

"He's alive."

Sarah let out the breath she'd been holding. "Oh, thank God. How is he?"

"How do you think he is? He just lost his brother."

"Where? Where is he?" she asked.

Bobby gave her a look before taking a very big swig of whiskey. "Sarah…"

"What Bobby? Where is he? You and I both know he shouldn't be alone."

He looked down at the table, "He's not alone."

"Is he here?"

"No."

"Then is Cas with him?"

"No…"

"Then who is he with?" She asked getting frustrated that Bobby wasn't answering her question. "Bobby, tell me."

"Lisa. He's with a girl named Lisa and her son…"

"Ben." Sarah finished for him, realizing who he was Dean had turned to. Sarah stood up and started to pace. "Well, I guess that answers that question, doesn't it."

"What question?"

"Well he didn't run to me did he?"

"We couldn't find you! For all we knew you were so deep underground, after the last time you ran away, that you'd never resurface." Bobby yelled, then softened, "I'm happy that you're alright, and he did look for you but he needed… needs someone stable in his life."

"And that's not me." She mumbled. "Is he hunting?"

"No. He's out." Bobby said then smirked, "He's got a job. Construction."

"Oh." Sarah said, tears filling her eyes.

"I guess, I should give him a call. Let him know you're alive."

Bobby reached for his phone but Sarah stopped him, "Don't. He's better off not knowing that I resurfaced." Then added, when she saw his resistance. "Promise me you won't tell him, Bobby. Promise me."

"Why?"

"I won't mess up his chance to get out. To have a family. We all owe it to him, so promise me."

Bobby just shook his head, "Fine," and set the phone back down. "So what are you going to do now?"

Sarah walked toward the door. "I'm gonna find a new life for myself. Maybe this time I can manage to not get pulled back in."

Bobby walked over to her, "Sarah, you don't have to leave. You can stay here if you want."

Sarah pulled Bobby into a hug and said, "Thank you Bobby, for everything you've done for me. I love you." And then she left.

It took her no time at all to track Dean down. She had to see for herself that he was really out of the game. She had to see that he was happy, even though it felt like a dagger through her heart, that he would find happiness without her.

She got to their house and watched Dean through the windows. She saw him sit down to eat dinner with who she figured was Lisa and a young boy. Sarah did have to give it to Dean, Lisa was definitely beautiful.

Sarah stood there for a while and just watched them eat. Laugh. Her heart breaking over and over. She knew that even if she'd stayed with Dean, even if he'd known she was alive, he still wouldn't have settled down with her.

She started to leave when, she saw Dean look out the window, at her. He moved to walk outside and she quickly hid. She saw him walk outside and look around, confused.

"Dean, honey? Everything alright?" Lisa said from the doorway.

Dean looked around again, his shoulders showed how tense he was, but after a moment he shook it off and walked back inside.

Sarah waited for a while after Dean went back inside before she stepped out of her hiding place.

"Goodbye, Dean." She whispered, glancing back one more time.

Several months later…

Sarah walked into her apartment after working a double shift at the bar. She took off her apron and started sorting her mail, when she sensed movement behind her. Quick as a blink, she grabbed her gun from her opened purse and spun around to face the intruder.

Shock showed on her face. She was face to face with Sam Winchester.

"Demon." She said before shooting at him. He moved quicker than she'd ever seen and dodged the bullet then kicked the gun out of her hands.

"Wait. It's not what you think." He said, but she swung at him. He deflected her attacks then pinned her against the wall. "It's me."

"No. Sam went into the pit."

"I did, but somehow I was brought back. And I'll prove it to you." He said backing away from her slowly. He walked over to her purse, pulled out a beat up flask that was full of holy water and drank some. He then walked back over to her and leaned in, trailing his finger down her shocked face. "See, not a demon."

"That still doesn't prove that your Sam. You could be a…"

"A shifter." He finished for her, before trailing his finger down her neck to her the top of her shirt. Her pulse quickening with his movement. He then reached in and pulled out the small knife she had concealed there. He then made a small cut on his arm that he had resting on the wall next to Sarah's head. "There. Not a shifter. Are we good now?" he asked as he tossed the knife to the side.

Sarah sighed in relief and pulled him in for a hug. "Sambo! I thought I'd never see you again!"

He held her tightly before she pulled back and and looked up at him, "How?"

"I don't know. One minute I was in the pit and the next minute I'm lying in a field alone in the rain."

"And you have no idea how or why?"

"None."

"When?"

"Almost a year ago."

"You've been back this whole time?" Sarah asked moving away from him but turned back and asked, "Wait, have you told Dean?"

"No, he's finally happy." Sam said as if that wouldn't hurt Sarah.

"Yeah, well, why are you here?" she asked her mood instantly changing.

"I need some help."

"Hunting help?"

"Yeah."

"Sorry. I'm out of the game too."

"Are you sure?" Sam said gesturing to all her weapons, "Because from here it doesn't look that way."

"That is for protection, not hunting. I have a life here. I even have a boyfriend. Who will be here soon, so you should leave."

"Oh good. I'd like to meet him." Sam said taking a seat on her couch.

"No. No you won't. Get up. Now." She commanded, trying to get him to leave.

"What? Think I might scare him off? I might say something, that lets him know who you really are?" Sam asked standing up.

"And who am I really?"

"A hunter." Sam said. Then added when she didn't say anything, "You miss it. I can see it in your eyes."

"No I don't."

"Come on, you don't fit in here. Always looking over your shoulder. Never fully trusting anyone. What are you going to do when your boyfriend want to move in or get married. Are you going to fit in then?" Sam asked then moved closer to Sarah. She started to back away, startled by the look in his eyes. "Or you could join me on the road. Be yourself again. It could be like old times… or we could start something new." Sam finished saying, a mere inch from her face. His breath hot on her skin. He moved in and kissed her.

Shock flooded her system again.

After a moment she regained her wits and pushed him away. "What are you doing?"

"Don't tell me you've never thought about this. About me." He said still very close.

"No. Never. What has gotten into you?" She pushed him away and walked to the door. "Goodbye Sam."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

One day Sarah was making a quick stop at the grocery store when she spotted someone that she didn't think she'd see again.

She was parking her car when she saw Sam run out of the store, holding something that he quickly placed in the backseat of a black car before hopping in the front seat. Then he peeled out of the parking spot and stopped at the front of the store long enough for Dean to run out and jump into the back seat. And then they sped off just as an old woman ran out after them.

Sarah quickly turned on her car and raced off after them. She ended up losing their trail after a little while. Sam's driving skills seem to have gotten better. She finally spotted the black car at a motel and rolled into a parking spot.

After parking, Sarah sat for a moment, contemplating whether she should actually go see what trouble the boys had gotten into this time or just leave and pretend she hadn't seen them.

Her choice was chosen for her when she saw the police office banging on their door before picking their lock.

Sarah quickly grabbed her gun from her glove box and quietly exited her car. She crept up to the door and saw Dean fighting the police man before he was thrown across the room. Sarah fired without a second thought and hit the police man in the middle of the back. He fell to the ground.

Sarah edged in slowly, keeping an eye on the police man. "Dean? Dean are you alright?"

"Sarah?" Dean asked when she came into view.

"Hey." She said looking over at Dean, taking her eyes off the intruder.

Just then, the police man jumped up and hit Sarah, making her fall next to Dean. Then another shot rang through the air and the policeman fell to the floor a second time.

"Well, there goes our deposit." Dean said then looked over at Sarah.

"Hey, Sarah." Sam said.

"So you're alive." Dean stated getting up off the floor. "And you knew that?" he directed to Sam.

Sam gave a 'whatever' look and walked over to start packing his bag.

"So… you're alive… and you never thought to tell me?" Dean growled.

"Dean… I…" Sarah stated then noticed the noise in the room, "Ah… what is making all that noise?"

Dean turned to the crib and said, "The baby," before walking over and picking it up.

"What are you two doing with a baby?" she asked.

"No time to explain. We need to go." Sam said ushering them toward the door.

"Well great. You two have fun with your baby." Sarah said turning toward her car to leave.

"Oh no you don't." Dean said grabbing her arm with his free hand. "You're coming with us."

"I can't. This isn't my life anymore." Sarah protested.

"You're not leaving, until I get some answers." Dean said pulling her to the car.

"Hurry up!" Sam yelled.

"Fine!" Sarah said grabbing the baby from Dean. "Go get in. I'll strap this little guy in." Then she got in the backseat.

Then they were off. Sam quickly filled her in on the baby situation.

"You know, it's pretty smart, actually. I mean, shifter poses as a guard for the security company to get near the house. Then it scopes out the fam." Sam said.

"Yeah, and then daddy takes off, and shifter becomes daddy. A few glasses of wine, shakes momma's trees, comes back in nine months to collect its prize." Dean added.

"That's disgusting!" Sarah interjected.

"I didn't even know they had babies. I thought they were just freaks of nature, like X-Men style." Sam said.

"You learn something new every day, huh?" Dean said.

"I've never seen a baby monster before." Sam stated making Sarah look at him in disgust.

"Of course it's not really a monster. I mean, it's still just a baby. It's not its fault its dad's a shifter." Dean replied.

"Right, but it's a shifter, too." Sam added.

"He's a boy. At least right now. Not an it." Sarah said with a little attitude as she held the baby's hand.

"Still doesn't change the fact that we've got to look after this thing. I mean, what the hell are we going to do with… him? We can't actually drop him off at an orphanage. They might get upset when he turns Asian."

"Samuel." Sam stated.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Who?" Sarah asked.

"Samuel. Our grandfather. He'll know what to do." Sam explained.

"You want to bring it to a bunch of hunters?" Dean asked.

"Not just hunters, Dean. They're our family." Sam replied.

"Wait… what?" Sarah said not sure of what she was hearing.

"We don't know them." Dean said not hearing Sarah.

"I do. Not every hunter is a head case. I mean, Samuel is actually a lot like you." Sam explained.

"I'm a freaking head case." Dean retorted.

"You got that right." Sarah mumbled.

"Well, pitch a better idea then." Sam argued. When Dean stayed quiet he added, "Great! Samuel, it is."

"Can we address how you two have a family now? A family of hunters, no less." Sarah asked sounding annoyed.

Dean turned in his seat and looked at Sarah, "How about we start with how you're alive. There has been far too many mysterious resurrections lately."

"I didn't die." She stated.

"Oh, come on. I saw you get thrown. You were thrown so far, we couldn't find you." Dean stated.

"What do you remember?" Sam asked her.

"I remember getting there when Lucifer was waiting for Michael. I remember being flung into a tombstone then waking up when he was beating Dean. I tried to stop him then I was flying through the air. Next thing I know, I'm waking up from a coma two months later. So if I died or not, I don't know."

"But…" Dean started.

"Hey, I answered yours, now you answer mine." Sarah interrupted.

Dean looked annoyed and turned away.

"Samuel was brought down the same time I was brought up. We don't know how or why. When Samuel came back he found the other Campbell's and formed a hunting team. You'll like them." Sam explained.

"If their anything like the two of you, then probably not." Sarah mumbled.

"If you dislike us so much, why did you show up at the motel?" Dean growled.

"You know? I'm not sure. Just let me out."

"Oh, listen to that. Same song, different day. Does nothing ever change with you?" Dean yelled causing the shifter baby to start crying again.

"Oh, good job Dean." Sam complained, while driving through a guarded gate. "Good thing we're here."

Sarah sighed, unhooked the baby from the car seat and picked him up before getting out of the car. Dean walked over to her and took the baby from her protectively before they walked into the compound.

Sam greeted the few people inside and started to talk with one of the hunters when Sarah noticed some of them staring at her. Sam stopped talking and looked where the others were looking.

"Sam, you gonna introduce us to your friend?" the oldest one asked.

"Oh, uh, everyone this is Sarah. Sarah, this is… well, everyone. That's Christian and Mark, Gwen and this is Samuel. Our grandfather." Sam said.

"Sarah, huh. So this is the girl your dad took in?" Samuel asked.

"She doesn't look like much. You sure she grew up a hunter?" Gwen asked sarcastically.

Sarah quickly kicked Gwen's legs out from under her and place the blade of her silver knife to her neck. "Tell me princess, you ever been tortured by demons? You ever look the devil in the face and live? Then I suggest you keep your mouth shut from now on." Then Sarah stood up to see a few stunned faces.

"Alright. Alright. Let's get back to business." Samuel declared with an eyebrow raised toward Sarah.

Sam quickly filled the others in on the current situation with the shifters then went to talk privately with Samuel.

Gwen approached Dean and looked at the baby he was holding. "Well, aren't you just the best disguise a monster ever wore?" When she saw Dean's glare she added, "I'm kidding, Dean. Relax."

Mark approached Dean.

"What, you got something to say?" Dean growled. Mark walked past Dean and leaned against the wall. "No? Alright, well, you stand there and think at me."

Sam and Samuel walked into the room. Sam asked, "What's our next move?"

"I got a couple of ideas. Dean, let me see the little guy." Samuel said.

"That's alright, I got him." Dean said protectively.

"What do you think I'm going to do?" Samuel asked.

"You really don't want me to answer that question." Dean growled.

"Well, I'm curious. Who exactly do you think we are?" Christian asked. Sarah felt a weird, creepy vibe from him. She couldn't pin point what it was but she knew, deep down that something was off with him.

"Hunters." Dean said simply.

"Funny. Here I've been thinking we're family." Christian retorted.

"Hey, let's not get worked up." Sam intervened.

"Yeah, yeah, let's not." Christian added.

"Here, Dean, it's fine. Let me take him. It's okay." Sam said taking the baby from Dean and passing him to Samuel.

"Hey there. You're a big fella, aren't ya? Yeah." Samuel said to the baby then looked up and said, "I haven't held one of these in a long time. Your mom was the tiniest. She was as bald as a cue ball."

"Alright, so what the hell are we going to do with him?" Dean asked.

"Raise him." Samuel said simply.

"Raise him?" Dean echoed.

"What, you've got another suggestion?" Samuel asked.

"But…" Dean started.

"It's dangerous out there for him, Dean." Samuel stated.

"And what about in here? What are we gonna—study him? Poke at him?" Dean asked.

"Your mind goes straight to torture, Dean. Don't assume that for everyone." Christian jabbed.

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Dean asked.

"Sorry. I heard about what you majored in down in the pit." Christian said.

"The hell is your problem, man?" Dean asked.

"You're starting to become a pain in my ass." Christian said getting up angrily.

"Christian, take it easy, man. He's my brother." Sam said intervening.

"We all done bristling up here, or what? Nobody's doing anything to him, Dean. When he's old enough, we throw it to him. He wants to volunteer to help out, that's fine." Samuel said.

"Could be great." Mark said speaking for the first time.

"How?" Dean asked.

"Think of the kind of hunter he'll grow up to be." Mark answered.

"You all are joking, right? I mean, come on! You can't 'Angelina Jolie' a shape shifter. Give me the baby." Dean said.

"Why can't you give me an inch of trust, Dean?" Samuel asked.

"Maybe because you two are suddenly back from the dead, and I seem to be the only one who wants to know how the hell that happened!" Dean yelled.

"You're not the only one who wants to know." Sam said.

"There's just a little too much mystery with this family for me to get comfy." Dean said.

"Then don't! But don't put it on us. All we're trying to do is invite you in. Christian?" Samuel said.

"Yeah?" Christian asked.

"You and Arlene, still no luck on the baby front?" Samuel asked.

"Not yet, no." Christian said slowly.

"But you want one?"

"Yeah, we do."

"Wait, hold on." Dean interrupted.

"It's okay, Dean. It's alright." Sam assured.

Samuel handed the baby to Christian and said, "Congrats. It's a boy, sometimes."

Christian chuckled, "The crap I do for this family."

"You're kidding right?" Dean said upset. Sarah moved next to Dean and instinctively put her hand on his arm to calm him.

"Go to hell, Dean." Christian said.

"Well, you have no business raising anything." Dean said.

"Why, Dean? Because he's a hunter?" Sam asked annoyed.

Suddenly they heard dogs barking outside. Every one snapped into action.

"Check the back door." Samuel yelled.

Christian handed the baby to Samuel, who handed him back to Dean.

"Downstairs, panic room. He'll be safe there. Go. Forget it, go! Now!" Samuel yelled at Sam, Dean and Sarah.

They rushed downstairs and locked themselves in the panic room. The boys immediately started pacing. Sarah stood by the door, looking out the little window. The baby started to cry.

"Come on, Bobby John. You have to keep quiet." Dean said trying to sooth the baby.

"Bobby John?" Sarah asked looking back at Dean.

Dean was about to retort when they heard gunfire upstairs.

"It doesn't sound good up there." Dean stated.

"Alright, I'm going to go up. Stay with the baby." Sam said moving toward the door.

"Uh… that's not a good idea." Sarah said just before the shifter appeared in the window, looking like Sam.

Sam pulled out his knife and pushed Sarah behind him just before the shifter tore the door off its hinges. The shifter quickly over powered Sam and tossed Sarah into a wall. Her vision blurred and she tried to stand up but kept falling down.

The shifter shifted to look like Dean without shedding his skin.

"What the…" Dean mumbled.

"Give me the baby." The shifter demanded.

"No way in hell." Dean growled.

The shifter grabbed Dean by the neck and raise him up the wall. Then he took the baby from Dean. He began to choke Dean before letting him drop to the floor. Then he walked toward the door. Sarah managed to get up and ran at the shifter in a last ditch effort to stop him, but he effortlessly tossed her aside.

Once he was gone, Sarah crawled over to Dean.

"Dean…" she whispered. "You alive?"

"Ugh…" he mumbled as he caught his breath.

She then got up and walked over to Sam and kneeled down to check his pulse.

"Sam… Sam…" She said stirring him. "Wake up."

"What the hell was that thing?" Dean asked walking into the room with everyone else.

"We think it may have been an Alpha." Samuel informed.

"An alpha, like?" Dean asked.

"Like all monsters come from somewhere, right?" Samuel said.

"And you think that this one was…"

"The king shape shifter. First one who spawned all the others. There's tons of lore about it." Samuel stated.

"The first one?" Dean asked.

"That's why he was so strong, and why nothing we had stopped it." Sam said.

"And he said that he could find the baby anywhere. That he could feel it, like there's a connection. That's in the lore, too." Samuel stated.

"What the hell does it want with babies anyway?" Dean asked.

"A softball team? I got no clue." Samuel said.

"Great, well then how do we kill it?" Dean asked.

"I don't know if we can." Samuel admitted.

After a few moments of silence, Sarah said, "Um… If we're done here, could I get someone to take me home, now?"

Dean and Sarah turned to look at her then walked toward the door.

"You don't want to stay with us again?" Sam asked.

"No. I am going back to my boring job and the boyfriend, you two made me stand up tonight." She said.

Dean gave her a sharp look then walked outside.

"You know, it's funny." Dean said.

"What's that?" Sam asked as Sarah prepared herself for Dean to yell at her.

"You know, just before you ganked that shifter in the motel, he mentioned a father, which make sense now because he meant the Alpha." Dean said.

"Huh. Yeah, I guess so." Sam said.

"Dean, where's this going?" Sarah asked.

Dean gave her a pissed off look and said, "Just get in the car." When she didn't move he growled, "Get in the damn car!"

Sarah huffed then got into the backseat. After a few minutes the boys joined her and they continued their journey in silence.

Once they got back to Sarah's car the boys realized that she was sound asleep. Dean quietly picked her pocket and retrieved her keys then followed Sam in her car to her apartment two towns over.

Sam instructed Dean as to which apartment was Sarah's. Dean then carried her in and laid her on her bed. He was turning to leave when he noticed a few pictures and nic-nacs on her dresser.

He slowly picked up the pictures one by one. The first one was of the impala. Dean smirked at it then picked up another one. This one was taken not long after his Dad had rescued her. It had him with one arm around her shoulders and one around Sam's. He remembered when she'd insisted on them taking this picture. Dean smiled at it sadly, as he remembered how close they used to be. He put that one back and grabbed the other picture. It had been taken recently and featured Sarah in the arms of a decent looking man. He was kissing her cheek. She was smiling in the picture, but Dean couldn't help but notice that her eyes looked sad.

He was putting the picture back when he saw a small jewelry box behind where it was. Unable to stop himself, he grabbed the box and opened it to reveal an engagement ring. He just stared at it, not knowing what to do or feel.

Dean heard Sarah sit up. He then said not looking over at her, "You're engaged."

"No." she said, Dean looked over at her then, "Well, not yet anyways." She got up and took the box from Dean and looked at the ring.

"What does that mean?"

"It means I haven't given him an answer yet."

"Do you love him?" Dean asked not looking at her.

Sarah continued to stare at the ring and said, "Sort of." She then closed the ring box and placed it back on the shelf, "I, mean, I love him. I really do. Just not like I love you."

Dean looked over at her for a moment before turning and walking toward the door. He got to the doorway but stopped. "Why didn't you let me know you were alright?"

"I tried but…"

"But what?" he asked turning to look at her.

"You looked happy. I went to see you, sense we were done being the angels puppets and when I saw you… you were happy. As much as it hurt to let you go, it felt like I was leaving you in better hands. You were playing with the kid and eating meals as a family. You finally had what you've always wanted. How could I just barge in and ruin that?"

"You know it's not as perfect as you think. It took me months to settle in. I drank too much. I had nightmares, of the people I love dying. It's a wonder she even let me stay."

"Well it sounds like both of us finally have what we've always wanted. You a family and me… a man who loves me."

Dean stared at her, "I guess so."

"So this is probably it then." Sarah said pulling Dean into a hug. "Have a nice life then."

"Yeah, uh, you too." Dean said sighing into her shoulder.

After a moment, they started to slowly pull apart. Their hearts started to beat faster. And before either of them knew it they were kissing. Feverishly kissing. Dean dug one hand into her hair and the other was gripping her hip, pulling her as close as possible.

He quickly backed her up to the bed and pushed her down then fell on top of her. He started unbuttoning her shirt as her hands explored his toned back and ass.

The sudden buzz from Dean's phone stilled their movements. Dean rolled off of her and stared at the ceiling for a moment before pulling his phone from his pocket.

"Yeah?' he asked into the phone. After a moment he said, "No. Everything's fine. I'll be out in a minute." Then he hung up the phone and sighed.

"You should go." Sarah re-buttoning her shirt.

"Sarah…"

"Dean, we both know we can't do this." Sarah said.

Dean sighed and stood up. "I'm glad you're okay." He said before walking again toward the door.

"Dean?" she said, stopping him again. "Be careful around Sam."

"Why?" Dean asked with a confused look.

"Let's just say, I'm not sure he came back the same. He's different and not in a good way." Sarah warned.

Dean nodded and left. Sarah grabbed her pillow and screamed into it for a moment before getting up. She walked out to her front door and locked it. As she turned to go back to her bedroom, she noticed something small and shiny on her coffee table. She moved closer to inspect it and realized that it was Dean's ring.

Shock ran through her, but not as much as when she read the short note that was underneath it.

**_ 'This has always been yours._**

**_ -D'_**

Sarah clutched the ring and silently cursed Dean, for making it harder to choose the normal life.


	3. Chapter 3

*** sorry for taking so long to update. Just got back from a long trip. Hope you all enjoy ***

Chapter 3

One month. It has been one month since Sarah's world was ripped apart. And one month since she'd started hunting again.

Sarah ran into an alley, demon close behind.

"End of the line, sweetheart." The demon said cheekily once they'd reached the dead-end.

Sarah turned her tear stained face to the demon just as he moved to punch her. She quickly smirked and deflected him, using his own body weight against him.

She then pulled the iron pipe from under her jacket and hit him repeatedly until he was on the ground and trapped in the devil's trap she had placed on the ground earlier in the day.

"My you demons are so predictable." she chided before starting to recite the exorcism ritual.

"Wait! Wait! I have info!" The demon yelled.

"The only info I want is how to find your boss." Sarah said forcefully.

"I can't. He'd kill me."

"You think I won't?" Sarah said before saying more of the exorcism.

"I can tell you about the Winchesters!" the demon cried out in pain.

Sarah paused enough to show she was listening. "What about the Winchesters?"

"Let me go and I'll tell you."

Sarah gave him a tired look and continued the exorcism.

"Their working for Crowley!" he yelled.

"You're lying." She said as she fought him.

"Believe what you want but the truth is their Crowley's bitch. You want the boss, then you'll have to go through them." The demon said laughing.

Sarah finished the exorcism and watched as the black smoke flowed out of the possessed man and burned its way back down into the pit.

"What have you idjit's gotten yourselves into now?" she muttered as she walked away, leaving the unconscious man behind.

Sarah walked up to the run down shack and knocked on the door. She listened intently to the soft sounds of movement behind the door, then watched as it slowly opened.

"Sarah?" Dean asked surprised.

"Hey." She said.

Dean moved out of the way to let Sarah in. She walked past him and through the devil's trap to show it was really her.

"What are you doing here?" Dean asked as Sam and Cas joined them.

"Well I heard an awful rumor and had to find out if it was true."'

"And what rumor would that be?" Sam asked.

"That you two morons were working for Crowley." She stated then after seeing it confirmed on their faces added, "You stupid idiots!"

"Sarah…" Dean started.

"What? You don't have a choice? Or are you just doing it for kicks? You know, I knew there would be a day that I'd hear that one or both of you were dead. Hell, I'm getting used to that but never did I think I'd find out you two were working for the enemy." Sarah ranted.

"Alright, enough. We don't need this crap." Dean growled back at her. "What the hell are you doing here anyway? I thought you were going to get married and live the normal life."

Sarah glared at him, "I came to make sense of this. So what the hell is up?"

Dean studied her for a moment. He noticed her harsher attitude, her aversion to his other comment, and the fresh scars on her skin. He then filled her in on their predicament, Sam's soul and the alphas that Samuel was hunting for. He also told her about their plan to attack Crowley. "So, that's what we're planning to do. Any questions or do you want to yell at us again?"

"Okay. I'm in." She stated.

Dean stared at her a moment then said, "Could I talk with you for a moment? Outside." Sarah followed him outside. "What happened? What's up with you?"

"Nothings up with me." She said flatly.

"Oh come on! I know you Sarah and I can tell when something's wrong. Last I saw, you were anti-hunting and now… Tell me what happened." Dean yelled, grabbing her arm. "Why are you hunting again?"

Sarah stared at him with cold, dead eyes, "Because I was stupid to think that someone like me could live a normal life."

"Sarah…"

"Just leave it, Dean. We need to focus on the mission." She said pulling her arm from his grasp.

"You do realize that this is a pretty suicidal mission, right? We'll be lucky if we all make it out alive." Dean said watching her for a reaction.

"So what? If I die, I die. No sense dwelling on it." She said as she closed her trunk.

"Sarah, whatever happened with your boyfriend, you can tell me." Dean said placing his hand on her arm reassuringly.

She softened a little then re-steeled herself and was about to answer when Castiel walked up and said, "Dean, it's time."

"Time for what?" Sarah asked.

"A meet-up." Dean sighed letting go of her arm. "Come on."

Dean, Cas, Sam and Sarah walked up to the group of waiting demons.

"Remember me? I sure remember you, Clarence." Meg said to Castiel.

"Why are we working with these abominations?" Cas asked.

"Keep talking dirty. Makes my meatsuit all dewy." Meg crooned.

"Demons?" Sarah muttered, realizing that they were working with more demons.

"Gold-star princess." Meg said to Sarah, then to Dean, "This one sure is as sharp as a tack, isn't she?"

Sarah lunged for Meg but Dean grabbed her and held her back.

"Wow, kitten, looks like you have a fire in that belly. Too bad I didn't put it there… this time." Meg goaded.

"You bitch!" Sarah growled, trying to get past Dean.

"Alright! Enough!" Dean growled, straining to hold Sarah. "Cas, a little help?" Cas stepped forward and grabbed Sarah, easily restraining her.

"Better get your woman in check, Dean. Wouldn't want something horrible to happen to her." Meg said sarcastically.

"Alright. Simmer Down." Dean growled. "We know where Crowley is."

"Great. Do tell." Meg said.

"Yeah, tell you, so you can just leave us for dead." Sam said.

"You boys have serious abandonment issues, you know that?" Meg said sarcastically.

"We'll show you, alright? But we're all going together." Sam stated.

"What, I'm just supposed to trust you?" Meg asked.

"No, you're not that stupid. Give me the knife for a minute." Sam said holding his hand out to Meg.

"No, I'm not that stupid." Meg mimicked.

"Do you want us to take you to Crowley or not?" Sam questioned. Meg huffed then handed Sam the knife. He then used it quickly to kill one of the demons. "You saw him. He was more interested in killing us than getting the job done. I just did all of us a favor." Sam said to the group, then turned to leave.

"Hey! You just gonna keep that?" Meg yelled at Sam.

"You took this from us. I'm taking it back. We leave in one hour." He growled. Dean followed after Sam, pulling Sarah with him in an iron like grip.

Dean pulled Sarah inside the shack. "Okay. You are going to tell me what is going on with you." He growled at her.

"Oh am I?" Sarah retorted.

"Yes, you are. I have been screwed over so many times because of someone keeping secrets. You are a live cannon right now and are either going to get yourself killed or worse. So you can tell me or you can be restrained. Which is it?" Dean asked, his voice low and serious.

"I'd like to see you try." She retorted angrily getting in Dean's face.

"Cas. Restrain her." Dean said without moving.

"What?" Sarah said surprised when Cas grabbed her. The next thing she knew she was tied to a chair in a room by herself.

She tried to free herself from her restraints when she heard, "Cas did those up nice and tight. No way for you to escape."

"Let me go, Dean." She demanded.

"Come on, Sarah, why are you acting like this? This is not you." He said bringing a chair closer to her and sitting on it backwards.

Sarah just clenched her jaw and remained silent as she stared at the floor.

Dean sighed, "Fine, let me know when you're ready to talk." He said standing up.

As he started to walk away, she began to struggle against her restraints again, "Let me go!" she yelled.

Dean turned to look at her before leaving the room and noticed something. He looked at her curiously. Some of the buttons of her shirt had popped open in her struggling, and revealed a shiny silver chain.

He quickly crossed the room and pulled the chain up to reveal two rings. One diamond ring and one simple silver ring. His silver ring.

"Dean. Leave it." Sarah warned.

"No. This shows that you still care about something even though you're acting like you don't care about anything."

"That shows nothing."

"Well, if you don't care about these then how about I just take them off your hands." He said pulling off the chain and placing it on his palm. "I'll just take this back and well, this… this one's useless to me so…" he took the other ring and dropped it on the floor. Sarah stared at it. "I'll just get the stone out and add this to the silver pile. I bet this ring and your chain will be enough to make a bullet." He then raised his foot to stomp on the ring.

"Don't!" Sarah cried out.

"And tell me why I shouldn't."

"Because… because it's my penance." She said slowly.

"Penance for what?"

"Penance for being stupid enough to think that I could actually have a normal life."

"Well that makes two of us. My normal apple pie life didn't work out too good either. But I'm not out there on the job like I have a death wish."

"Is Lisa alive?" Sarah asked coldly.

"Yes…" Dean said slowly.

"Well that's great for you, but…"

"But your guy didn't make it."

"No. Jason didn't" She said harshly as a tear fell.

"Sarah, I'm sorry. But you can't blame yourself like this. It's not your fault."

"I can't blame myself? Why can't I? I'm the one that killed him." She said staring right at him.

"What? No you didn't. People die all the time, that doesn't make it your fault." Dean said sternly.

"Oh I definitely did." Sarah stated then sighed, "It happened a week after the shifter baby incident. I was a bartender and had seen this girl come in a few nights in a row. Each night the same, she would find the loneliest and most depressed person at the bar and leave with them. One night, I managed to hear some of the conversation and realized that she was a crossroads demon. So I talked her up and got her outside alone. We fought and I started to tried to exorcise it, it hit me with a cheap shot and got away. When I got home that night, Jason was… he was there. Only it wasn't him. It was that demon. He attacked me. I defended myself… while trying to exorcise it, but he pulled out a knife… and before I knew it, I had stabbed him in the heart… I… I… finished the exorcism and after the demon was gone… I held held him as the life went out of his eyes." Sarah looked up at Dean and Said, "I vowed then, to kill every demon I can get my hands on or die trying."

"Sarah…"

"Don't. I don't want your pity. Just let me go. I told you everything. Now just let me go." She finished in a whisper.

"What so you can continue on your suicide mission?"

"If I die, I die. What does it really matter? The only person who loves… loved me is now dead."

"I'm sorry, what? The only person who loves you? He's not the only one that loves you."

"No, Dean he was. He was the only one who loved me more than anything. I was his number one choice. Now, you love me, I'll grant you that, but it was a much different love. It was a more physical one. If I were to die right now, you would probably care some, but in a few days. A week. A month. You wouldn't care anymore."

"You're wrong."

"Didn't take you long to connect with Lisa." Sarah said sullenly.

Dean started to pace angrily. "Just because I was with Lisa doesn't mean I didn't think about you every day. I tried to find you but there were no leads. And with Bobby keeping things from me… You know what, we're not doing this. You are not going to try and make me the bad guy, when you had every possibility to let me know where you were."

They sat in silence for a minute before Sarah said, "Nothing we say here today is going to make a difference. We are now on two very separate paths. Let me go and I promise to stay out of your path for good."

Dean grabbed the chair he had been sitting in earlier and tossed it to the side. He advanced on her and lean down to stare directly into her eyes and searched them for a moment. Then he said, "No."

"No?"

"No. I am going to fix Sam and then we are going to fix you, too, Cakes." He said placing his hands on both sides of her face and kissed her forehead. He left her then and sent Sam in to escort her to Bobby's house, where they locked her in the panic room.

The next day, Dean paid her a visit.

"You planning on escaping?" Dean asked as he walked into the panic room, leaving the door open.

"Sam and Bobby upstairs?"

"Yep."

"Then no. I don't want to fight soulless Sam again. He's too handsy."

Dean quirked his head a little, "Handsy? Sam?"

"Soulless Sam." She corrected.

"Hmm… Well, that's why I'm here. I have an arrangement with Death."

"Death? Like the horseman?"

"Yeah. I have to be him for one day." Dean said causing Sarah to give him a shocked look. "If I can do that, then he will get Sam's soul back."

"Dean… Do you really think that you can do that?" She asked, surprising herself with how concerned she was.

"I don't have a choice. I have to save Sammy. And I promise, I'll save you too."

"Dean…"

"I have to go. Wish me luck." He said. Then he was gone and she was locked in the room again.

"Good luck." She whispered to an empty room.

She didn't hear or see anyone for a while after that. Nothing until, she heard some sort of banging sound going on upstairs. Then suddenly something very heavy made a big 'thump' noise outside the panic room door.

And then she could hear Sam yelling to someone but she couldn't hear the other person. After a moment the panic room door flew open.

"Sam?... What's going on?" she asked. He quickly gathered a chair, some tools and began to open the latch on the ceiling. "Sam?" She asked again but too close to him. Without a second thought, Sam backhanded her, sending her flying into the desk.

She woke a few minutes later, with her head and left arm throbbing. Looking around she saw the ceiling latch and the door were both open to the panic room. She quickly got up and found a rag to stabilize her broken arm and picked up a lead wrench, then slowly made her way upstairs.

The whole house was eerily quiet as Sarah searched the rooms, seeing what looked like the remnants of a fight. After searching the house she made her way outside quietly trying to search for Bobby.

"Hey." She heard someone whispered behind her. She turned around quickly, swinging the wrench, only to see that it was Dean. He deflected the wrench. "Oh, thank goodness it's you!"

"What's going on?" he asked as she continued to search.

"Sam's gone crazy. I think he has Bobby." She informed. Dean instantly moved ahead of her looking around.

"He do that to you?"

"Yep."

"You clear the house?"

"Yeah."

He then quickly walked to the garage and saw that Sam was about to stab a tied up Bobby. "Hi Sam. I'm back." Dean said as he stopped Sam's movements, then landed a knockout punch.

Sarah rushed to untie Bobby with her good hand, then Bobby helped Dean drag Sam back to the house and into the panic room. They then cuffed Sam to the bed.

"I can't keep doing this, Bobby. I mean, what am I gonna tie him up every time he tries to kill someone? And that's not gonna hold him. I mean, he's…" Dean said looking at Sam.

"Capable of anything." Bobby finished for him.

"What am I supposed to do here?" Dean asked.

"I don't know." Bobby answered.

Dean looked over at Sarah, who was sitting in front of the workbench trying to fashion a splint one handedly. "Hang on, Sarah. I'll go get the med kit." Dean said heading for the stairs.

"Whiskey, please!" she said hoarsely.

After several minutes, Dean had still not returned and Bobby was lost in his thoughts, so Sarah started up the stairs to see what was going on. Halfway up the stairs, Dean appeared and almost knocked her over as he sprinted down.

"Bobby! Open the door!" he yelled.

"What happened?" Bobby asked.

"Now!" Dean growled.

Bobby opened the door to the panic room and they saw Sam yelling, "Get away from me! Don't. Don't!"

Sarah hurried over and stood between Dean and Bobby and saw a slender, dark haired man in the room with Sam.

"Now, Sam, I'm gonna put up a barrier inside your mind." Death instructed.

"No, don't touch me."

"It might feel a little… itchy. Do me a favor – don't scratch the wall. Trust me – you're not gonna like what happens."

"Please. Don't do this." Sam yelled. Death reached into his bag and pulled out Sam's soul. A ball of bright light. Then moved to put it back in Sam's body. "No! No! You don't know! You don't know what'll happen to me! Dean, please! No. No. No."

Death then pushed the soul back in Sam. Sam began screaming.

Sarah leaned into Dean, grabbing his hand as they watched Sam scream in agony.

A day later, Sarah and Dean waited impatiently outside the panic room for Cas to finish examining Sam.

The panic room door opened and Cas walked out rolling down his sleeves.

"Well?" Dean asked.

"His soul is in place." Cas stated.

"Is he ever gonna wake up?" Dean asked.

"I'm not a human doctor, Dean." Cas said annoyed.

"Could you take a guess?" Dean retorted.

"Okay. Probably not." Cas replied.

"Oh, well, don't sugar coat it." Dean snapped.

"Boys. Cool it." Sarah said raising her good arm to stop them.

"I'm sorry, Dean, but I warned you not to put that thing back inside him." Cas said as he touched Sarah's broken arm, healing it.

"What was I supposed to do? Let T-1000 walk around, hope he doesn't open fire?" Dean retorted.

"Let me tell you what his soul felt like when I touched it. Like it had been skinned alive, Dean. If you wanted to kill your brother, you should have done it outright." Cas growled before disappearing.

Sarah sighed, "Thanks Cas," as she removed the splint from her now healed arm.

Back upstairs, Bobby started going over a possible case with Dean as Sarah started to do some research on her computer.

"Girls just gone. No body, no nothing." Bobby said.

"Okay, I'm not changing the channel." Dean said.

"Dean." Sam said entering the room.

Dean turned slowly to look at Sam. "Sam?"

Sam pulled Dean into a bone crushing hug. Then he pulled Bobby into a hug.

"Good to see you." Bobby said.

Sarah slowly stood from her spot on the couch, eyeing Sam inquisitively. "Sambo?"

Sam looked at her for the first time and pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. "Hey, sis." He whispered then pulled back and said, "Wait. I saw you… Lucifer threw you, like supersonic high and Bobby, I felt him snap your neck."

"I was in a coma…"

"Well, Cas kind of…"

"Cas is alive?" Sam asked amazed.

"Yeah, Cas – Cas is fine. Sam, are you okay?" Dean asked.

"Actually, um… I'm starving." Sam said.

"I'll go make you something, Sammy." Sarah said walking into the kitchen.

A couple of minutes later, Sarah laid a plate of sandwiches down on the table. Sam quickly ate two of them then slowly ate the third one.

"So… Sam…" Dean said getting his attention.

"Yeah?" Sam asked.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Dean asked.

"The field. And then I fell." Sam said.

"Okay. And then?" Dean asked.

"I woke up in the panic room." Sam answered simply.

"That's it? You really don't remember…" Bobby said before Dean cut him off.

"Let's be glad. Who wants to remember all that hell?"

"Well, how long was I gone?"

"About a year and a half." Dean stated.

"What? I was downstairs f… I don't remember anything. So, how'd I get back? Was it Cas?" Sam asked.

"Not exactly." Dean said evasively.

"Dean, what did you do?" Sam questioned.

"Me and Death…" Dean started.

"Death? The horseman?" Sam exclaimed.

"I had leverage. It's done." Dean said forcefully.

"You sure?" Sam asked.

"It's over. Slate's wiped." Dean said.

"Well, isn't this just neat and clean." Bobby said cheekily.

"Yes, it is – for once." Dean snapped. Then noticed Sarah trying to sneak out of the room. He followed her upstairs to the room Dean was using. He watched her from the doorway, as she dug around in his bag. "Only thing you're going to find in there is dirty underwear." Sarah sighed heavily and tossed down his bag. "I take it you're looking for these."

Sarah turned to look at him and saw that he was holding up her rings. "Give those back." She said reaching for them.

"Uh uh. I think I like them." Dean teased.

"Hey, I stayed and helped with Sam. I didn't have to, but I did."

"You did that because you care about Sam, and you know it. Now I've gotten Sam back, so I guess it's your turn. Just like I promised."

"Dean… Please. Stop acting like you care." She mumbled.

"Care? Sarah, I've always cared."

"Yeah, okay." Sarah said sarcastically.

Dean sighed and grabbed Sarah's left hand. "Here, I think you should wear them like this." He said before placing the diamond ring on her ring finger, followed by his silver ring. "They look good on you."

Sarah stared at the rings on her finger for a moment before pushing past him and into the hallway. She immediately walked downstairs and outside, trying to get as far away from Dean as possible before she let her tears start to fall. She didn't stop at the porch. She kept walking down the driveway and to the road towards town. She made it almost to the diner about 5 miles away before she felt a weird tugging feeling in the pit of her stomach. She kept walking but the feeling kept growing in intensity and soon she found herself staring at Bobby's front porch.

Sarah stood there in shock that she had been teleported back to Bobby's house.

"Yeah, I had Cas kinda low jack you, when he fixed your arm. Try as you might but you're stuck with me." Dean said from behind her. She spun around and smacked him. "Yeah, probably deserved that."

"Undo this!" Sarah growled at him.

"Sorry, can't. Better just get used to it. Hey, you want a beer?" he asked like nothing was happening.

Sarah growled and kneed Dean in the groined, then walked back inside.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The next few weeks, the boys and Sarah worked a few cases. First there were dragons, then an Arachne then a vengeful spirit.

Sam found out that he had actually been back from hell for over a year and without a soul.

Sarah traveled with them and was watched like a hawk by Dean but Sam could not figure out why or why Sarah's attitude had changed so much. She would only talk to Dean about their cases and would ignore him the rest of the time.

Dean, Sam and Sarah were researching some weird occurrences at Bobby's house when Sam looked up and said, "Where's Bobby?"

"In town, supply run." Dean answered.

"In this?" Sam asked indicating the torrential downpour outside.

"Yeah, man's a hero. We were officially out of hunter's helper." Dean said holding up an empty liquor bottle.

"Hello, boys and… uh, girl… why hello there." Balthazar said mostly to Sarah then refocused and add, "You've seen 'The Godfather', right?"

"Balthazar…" Dean said as he and the others stood up confused. Sarah moved closer to Dean.

"You know, the end, where Michael Corleone sends his men to kill his enemies in one big, bloody swoop?" Balthazar asked as he picked up a container of salt and poured it in a nearby bowl.

"Hey!" Dean yelled.

"Dead sea brine. Good, good, good. You know, Mo Greene gets it in the eye; and Don Cuneo gets it in the revolving door?" Balthazar asked ignoring Dean and looking for more ingredients.

"I said, Hey!" Dean growled.

"You did. Twice. Good for you. Blood of lamb. Blood of lamb." Balthazar said as he searched the fridge. Sarah started to chuckle. "Beer, cold pizza. Blood of lamb. Yes! Blood of lamb!"

"Why are you talking about 'The Godfather?'" Sam asked.

"Because we're in it… right now, tonight. And in the role of Michael Corleone… the archangel Raphael," Balthazar explained still searching for ingredients.

"You mind telling us what you mean?" Dean asked.

"No. No, no, no, no, no, no." Balthazar yelled as he emptied one of Bobby's desk drawers. "Yes. Bone of a lesser Saint. This vertebra will do very nicely. Your Mr. Singer does keep a beautiful pantry."

"Raphael is after you?" Dean asked.

"Raphael is after us all. Even you, sweetheart." Balthazar said throwing a glance at Sarah. "You see he's consolidated his strength. And now he's on the move."

"And where's Cas?" Sam asked.

"Oh, Cassie? He is deep, deep underground. So, good old Raffy put out a hit list on every last Samaritan who helped our dear Cas. Including both of you and your bonny lass. And so much more importantly, me. See, he wants to draw Cas out in the open." Balthazar explained while drawing a sigil on the window.

"And you expect us to just believe you?" Sam asked.

"Oh, don't. You'll go where I throw you either way." Balthazar said nonchalantly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean growled as lightning flashed outside.

"That's all the time we have, gentlemen." Balthazar said opening his jacket revealing a large bloodstain on his side. "Where is it?"

"Whoa. What happened there?" Dean asked.

"Oh, garish, I know. You see, uncle Raffy sent one of his nastiest to handle me. I'm flattered, actually. And down a lung at the moment, but that's all right. Oh! Here's for you." Balthazar said handing Sam a key.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Sam asked confused.

"Run with it." Balthazar said before he was thrown across the room. "Virgil." He said to the new angel in the room then looked to the other three and said, "I said, run!" Then pushed them through the window.

Sam, Dean and Sarah crashed through the window and landed on a mattress on a TV show set.

"Cut!" Someone yelled.

Dean and Sam stood up with Dean helping Sarah up.

"Real good solid fall. Way to go." A crew member said to them as he walked by.

"Jared, Jensen, Jane! Outstanding! That was just great." A gruff sounding man said from across the room.

Then a crewmember was in front of them with a marker slate and yelled, " 'Supernatural', scene one echo, take one. Tail slate. Marker."

"So… No angels?" Sam asked as they tried to figure out what was happening.

"No angels, I think." Dean answered.

"What do we do?" Sarah asked leaning against Dean and holding her head in pain.

"Should we be killing anybody?" Sam asked.

"I don't think so." Dean said putting an arm around Sarah to help keep her steady.

"Running?" Sam asked.

"Where? And how? Sarah hit her head pretty bad. She can't run." Dean answered.

"Moving on! That's a wrap on Jared, Jensen and Jane!" A man yelled.

"W-who the hell are…" Sam started to ask but was interrupted.

"Jared! Three minutes, okay? Great." A pretty woman said before grabbing his arm and dragging him away.

"Where are we going?" Dean asked then another woman approached him.

"Jensen, there you are! Let's just get you in the chair." She said pulling Dean away from Sarah.

"Here you are. Let's get you to your chair." A different woman said to Sarah.

"What?" Sarah asked as she was pushed into a chair across the room from the boys.

"Look at that bump. You must have hit the window pretty hard. I'll get you some ice." She said to Sarah before signaling someone to get ice, then preceded to strip off the heavy make-up that was on Sarah's face. "I'll have you cleaned up in no time. How are you feeling? Do you need an aspirin or something?"

"Uh… no I'm fine. I, uh do need to talk with… J… Jared and … Jensen though, so could we do this fast?" Sarah asked.

"You want to talk to them?" the woman asked surprised.

"Yeah… why?"

"I just didn't realize that you three were on speaking terms. Well you and Jensen, I guess." The woman said as she worked.

"Oh… well… we made up the other day." Sarah said trying to figure out what to say.

"Okay, well you're done, hun. Here's your ice pack. Go relax in your trailer and put that on the bump. I don't want to have to try and hide that bump tomorrow." The woman said handing Sarah an ice pack.

Sarah muttered a quick thanks and hurried off to try and find the boys. She caught up to them as they were walking to the exit.

"It's a TV show." Sam said to Dean as she walked in.

"You think?" Dean and Sarah retorted.

"Yeah. I mean, here – wherever 'here' is, this – this twilight zone Balthazar zapped us into. For whatever reason, our life is a TV show." Sam said.

"Why?" Dean asked.

"I don't know." Sam answered dumbfounded.

"No, seriously. Why? Why would anyone want to watch our lives?" Dean asked.

"You got me." Sarah muttered.

"Well, I mean, according to that interviewer, not very many people do. Look, I'm not saying it makes sense. I'm just saying, we – we landed in some dimension where you're Jensen Ackles, she's Jane Reynolds and I'm something called a 'Jared Padalecki.'" Sam said.

"So what, now you're polish? Is anything making sense to you?" Dean asked as they walked outside and saw the Impala. "Oh, hey. Least my baby made it."

A crew member started to fling mud onto the windshield.

"Hey. Hey! What…" Dean yelled then noticed three more Impalas. "I feel sick. I'm gonna be sick."

"Oh, I would think this would be heaven for you. You know, quadruplets." Sarah said chuckling a little.

Dean glared at her. "I want to go home. I feel like this whole place is bad touching me."

"Yeah, I know. Me too. So, what do you think? Cas?" Sam asked.

"He's our best shot, if he's still alive. 'Dear Castiel, who art maybe running his ass away from heaven. We pray that you have your ears on. So… breaker, breaker…" Dean prayed.

"Guys." Sarah said then pointed to Cas a little ways away.

"Cas? Cas! Hey, Cas!" Dean called out as they ran over to him. "Oh, thank God. What is all this, huh? W… What did Balthazar do to us?"

"To keep you out of Virgil's reach, he's cast you into an alternate reality, a universe similar to ours in most respects yet dramatically different in others." Cas said after giving them an odd look.

"Like… like bizarro earth, right? Except, instead of having Bizarro Superman, we get this clown factory." Dean asked.

Cas gave another odd look, "Um… Yeah, well… Anyway, no time to explain. Do you have the key?"

"Yeah." Sam said handing the key to Cas. "So, uh, what does this thing do, anyway?"

"It opens a room." Cas stated.

"What's in the room?" Sarah asked.

"Every weapon Balthazar stole from heaven." Cas stated.

"He gave it to us?" Dean asked.

"To keep it safe until I could reach you. With those weapons, I have a chance to rally my forces." Cas said.

"Oh. Okay, good. Yeah. So, now, uh, what's the deal with all this TV crap?" Sam asked.

"Pardon?' Cas asked.

"Yeah. Amen, Padaleski." Dean said.

"Uh, 'lecki." Sam corrected.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Lecki. Pretty sure." Sam said.

"Man." Cas said pulling some paper out of his pocket to look at. "Did they put out new pages?"

"New what?" Dean asked.

"I mean, is this some kind of cosmic joke?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, 'cause if it is, it's stupid, and we don't get it." Dean growled.

"Yeah." Sam agreed.

"You got that right." Sarah said.

"Are you guys okay?" Cas asked in a much higher sounding voice than normal.

Dean grabbed the papers from Cas and started reading them, "Give me that. What is – these are words in a script. This isn't Cas."

"Oh, come on!" Sarah said.

"Dude, look at him." Sam said.

Cas began unbuttoning his shirt to reveal a patterned new age t-shirt underneath. "You guys want to run lines, or…?"

"His name is Misha… Misha?" Dean said skeptically.

"Oh, wow. Just… great." Sam said very annoyed.

"Misha? Jensen? What's up with the names around here?" Dean asked as they walked away from the fake Cas. "I just want to dig my finger in my brain and scratch until we're back in Kansas."

"Hey." Sam said stopping and pointing to a trailer. "J. Ackles."

"That's fake me!" Dean exclaimed.

"Yeah." Sam said.

"This must be fake mine." Dean said then walked into the trailer. "Dude, I have a helicopter!"

"Oh, alright, who puts a 300-gallon aquarium in their trailer?" Sam asked.

"Apparently, Jensen Ackles." Dean answered sounding kinda impressed.

"Who so far seems to be a douche bag. Huh, no… no difference between you and him so far." Sarah quipped. Dean glared at her.

"Alright, here we go. Let's see who this guy is." Sam said after spotting a laptop and sitting down in front of it.

"Well, he's not a hunter, but he plays one on TV. Oh." Dean said picking up a magazine. "Come on. Look at these male-modelin' sons of bitches. Nice 'blue steel,' Sam."

"Hey. Apparently, it's our job." Sam said after glancing up at the magazine.

"I just don't see the resemblance." Sarah said looking at the magazine cover. "I mean, he's clearly more attractive than you." She added sarcastically.

Dean began to flip through the magazine and found an article on Sarah with a variety of pictures including one of her in a bed barely covered by a sheet and one where she was naked and half lying on Dean, who was also naked and barely covered by a sheet. "You know, you're right, Sarah."

"Right about what?" She asked warily.

"They don't look like us, because the Sarah in this world is so much sexier. And not camera shy." Dean said staring at the page, before holding it up. "I mean look at this."

"Wha… how… wh…" She sputtered as she looked at the picture then noticed Sam looking at it stunned. "Stop staring Sam! Dean, give me that!" She moved to grab the magazine from him but he pulled away from her. He laughed as he kept moving it out of her reach.

"Hey." Sam said getting their attention. "It says you're from Texas, Dean."

"Really?" Dean asked still holding the magazine away from Sarah.

"Yeah. And, uh… oh. Says you were on a soap opera." Sam said trying not to laugh.

"What?" Dean growled as he walked over to Sam. Sarah followed closely behind.

"I have got to see this!" She said as Sam pressed play on a video.

After a minute, Dean slammed the laptop closed. Sam was staring at it in shock and Sarah was rolling on the floor laughing.

"Don't like this universe, Sammy. We need to get out of this universe." Dean grumbled throwing the magazine down on the table.

"Yeah. No argument here. But I don't think our – our prayers are reaching Cas. Or the real Cas." Sam said.

"Well, I agree. I think we are definitely out of, uh, soul-phone range. But…" Dean said.

"What?" Sarah asked.

"If we can reverse Balthazar's spell… I watched every move." Dean said as he drew a sigil on a piece of paper. "We just, uh, get the ingredients, right, get back to the same window, and… There's no place like home."

The boys hurried out of the trailer in search of the ingredients, Sarah grabbed the magazine and tucked it into her hidden jacket pocket.

She caught up to the boys and they tried searching through the set. They found nothing. Then they tried to hop in an impala and leave but the impala stalled.

"How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?" Dean growled.

Then one of the assistants pointed out a big black SUV and a driver that was waiting for them.

"You know whereabouts you want me to drop you off? Jensen?" the driver Cliff asked.

"Uh… yes. Um… I'll – I'll just tag along with, uh…" Dean stuttered.

"Jared." Sam finished for him.

"Jared… Jared here." Dean said quickly.

"Huh. And what about you Ms. Jane?"

"Oh, uh… the same." She replied.

"Huh. Since when are you all talking?" Cliff asked.

"Yeah, uh, y-you know what, Clint, uh…" Sam stammered.

"Uh.. Cliff." Cliff corrected.

"Y-yeah. Yeah, of course. Cliff. Obviously. Um, so, uh, I think we're gonna go back to my place a… and do some… work." Sam tried coming up with a lie.

"Work on our acting." Dean chimed in.

"Yeah." Sarah added.

"For our characters. For the show." Dean embellished.

"I think he gets it, D… Jensen." Sarah muttered.

"Alright." Cliff said slowly.

They pulled up to a humongous mansion. The three of them got out of the SUV and stared at the mansion, then slowly walked inside.

"Nice modest digs, Jay-z." Dean joked to Sam.

"Wow. I must be the star of this thing." Sam said taking in everything.

"Yeah, right. Check it out." Dean said nodding toward a tanning bed.

"What am I, Dracula?" Sam asked.

"I'd laugh but I'm afraid of braking something." Sarah interjected as she looked at the crazy artwork.

"George Hamilton Dracula."" Dean said then spotted the liquor cabinet. "Oh. Now we're talking."

"Make mine a triple. Hold the ice." Sarah instructed as Dean walked over to the cabinet.

As Dean looked at the liquor bottles, he noticed something outside. "Dude, you have a camel in your backyard."

"It's an alpaca, dumbass." A woman said from a balcony above Sarah's head.

"Ruby?" Dean asked confused.

" 'Ruby.' Right. That one never gets old." She said then disappeared from the balcony and walked into the room. "How was work today, hun?" She asked as she grabbed Sam's shirt and pulled him down to kiss him.

Dean and Sarah stared in shock at Sam kissing Ruby.

"Wait. You and Ruby?" Dean asked.

"Do you honestly think that's funny, Jensen?" She asked him annoyed.

"Right. Right. 'Cause you're not Ruby. You… I mean, how could you be? You… of course! You are the lovely actress who plays Ruby. And you are, uh… in… Jared's house, uh, because you two are…" Dean stalled as he scanned the pictures around the room, "Married! You married fake Ruby?"

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked.

"Work. Work." Sam said quickly.

"Yeah, just, uh, thought I'd pop in, say 'hey.' Hey. Uh, and – and maybe run some lines. It's…" Dean said.

"You've never been to our house." Ruby said.

"Well, now that I know there's an alpaca out back, I'm definitely coming back." Dean replied.

"Well, alpacas are the greenest animal." Ruby said.

"Right. Right. That is so important."

"Well, there's that thing I have to get to." Ruby replied.

"Oh, yeah. Of course, yeah. The thing." Sam said.

"The international otter adoption charity dinner?" Ruby said trying to jog Sam's memory.

"Oh." Sam said.

"Okay, well…" She said then kissed Sam again. "Well, I'm glad you two are talking, anyway."

"Yeah." Sam muttered.

Ruby turned to leave and spotted Sarah. "Janey?"

"Uh… yeah…" Sarah said slowly.

"Oh my goodness! Janey! Why didn't you text me that you were here?"

"I… uh… wanted to surprise you…?"

Ruby rushed over to Sarah and pulled her into a big hug. "This is great! Why don't you go with me tonight? Oh come on, it will be fun!"

"I… uh… was gonna run lines…"

"Oh they can make do without you for a while." She insisted.

"But I… don't have anything to wear."

"Don't worry about it, I'll have you done up in no time." Ruby said with a big smile then grabbed Sarah's hand and dragged her from the room.

Sarah then found herself upstairs in a massive closet with Ruby looking at all sorts of dresses. She finally settled on a simple purple dress that was strapless, skin tight and went down to about mid-thigh.

As Ruby was working on Sarah's hair, Sarah said, "I can't possibly wear this…"

"Oh stop being so self-conscious. You look amazing in it. And now all you need are shoes." After a few more minutes, Sarah and Ruby made their way downstairs. "Alright, hun. We're off. You two behave." Ruby said causing the boys to look up at her and Sarah.

"Whoa." Dean mumbled.

"Uh, Can I see you a minute, S… Jane?" Dean asked.

Sarah followed him to the other side of the room. "What?" she whispered.

"First of all… whoa… you look…" He said as his gaze trailed up and down her body.

"Dean..." Sarah warned, even though her stomach was full of butterfly's from his gaze.

He snapped out of his thoughts and said, "Second, What are you doing? You know you can't go with her. What's going to happen when you get so far and then are zapped back?"

"I don't know. I guess we'll find out if the leash Cas put on me works in this universe." She said harshly. "Magic doesn't work here, remember."

"Well, uh… where are your rings?" Dean asked tentatively.

"What?" Sarah asked confused.

"The rings. Where are they?" he asked, searching her with his eyes. "I don't want you to lose them."

"Why?" Sarah asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Uh… because they mean so much to you. Wouldn't want anything to happen to them." He tried to cover.

Sarah gave him a confused look then walked away and left with Ruby without another word.

The girls returned a couple hours later and spotted Sam in the hallway.

"Hey! Hey. Hi, Hi, uh… Gen-Genevieve. Gen?" Sam said nervously.

"Gen." she corrected giving him a confused look.

"Gen. Of course. Yeah. Um, so h – how was the… otter thing?" he asked.

"It was good." Gen said.

"Yeah. It was… fun." Sarah added. "Hey, where's Jensen?"

"He's in the library." Sam said pointing down the hall.

"Okay. I'll just go check on him." She said walking down the hall then added, "Thanks Gen. I had fun."

"Me too, Sweetie." Gen said with a smile.

Sarah found the library and looked back down the hallway to see Gen leading Sam upstairs. Sarah smirked at his frightened expression. "Have fun Sambo."

She found Dean asleep on the couch. It always amazed her that he could sleep in pretty much any position. She walked over and removed his shoes. Then grabbed a blanket and placed it on him. She turned to leave when he reached out and grabbed her arm and pulled her onto the couch with him.

"Dean. What are you doing?" She asked as he pulled her close to him and nestled his face into the crook of her neck.

"What does it look like? I'm going to sleep." He said huskily.

"Dean. They could walk in at any moment. Let me go."

"So?"

"What's gotten into you?" She asked him.

He looked down at her and said, "You." Then kissed her neck causing Sarah to suck in a breath. "You. You came back. And this dress." He said between trailing kisses along her neck and exposed collar bone until he was on top of her.

"We can't… Dean…" She tried but he covered her lips with a passionate kiss. "Oh, hell." She murmured throwing her arms around him and giving in.

Early the next morning, Sam woke Dean and Sarah by throwing Sarah's normal clothes on them. "Get dressed. We gotta go." Was all he said, his eyes averted before he walked out of the room.

"Morning Sunshine." Dean said sleepily, kissing her. She moved awkwardly out of his grasp and started to get dressed. "What's wrong?"

"We need to go." She said simply.

"Sarah…"

"Dean. Don't. I think we both know last night was a mistake. So let's just get back to the real world." She said as she finished dressing and left the room.

Sarah walked past Sam in the hallway, going towards the front door. "Here" he said causing her to look over at him. "I got you some coffee."

Sarah accepted the coffee gratefully, "Thanks."

"I also found this upstairs." He said holding up her necklace with her rings strung on it.

Sarah looked at it a moment, before grabbing it and placing it around her neck.

"We ready to go?" Dean asked joining them.

They left soon after and picked up some items to replicate the spell that Balthazar did, from the airport. Then they went back to the studio, but before they were able to try the ritual again, they had to act out a scene. It did not go well.

The three of them then took their only opportunity and tried the ritual. But after crashing through the window, found that there was really no magic in this reality.

"Jensen! Jane!" the director yelled over to them.

They cautiously walked over to him. "Yeah?" Dean asked.

"I wanted to go over the love scene, we are shooting next."

"I'm sorry the what scene?" Dean asked.

"Now, don't start. It's in your contract. Now Jane, you will come in and see Jensen sleeping on the couch. You will take his shoes off and then cover him with a blanket. Jensen, you will then grab Jane's hand and pull her onto the couch with you. You two with me so far?" the director asked. "Can we practice that part? It has to be… precise."

Dean and Sarah stared quietly, stunned at the director until they were ushered onto the set that looked like Bobby's living room.

"Okay. Let's practice this." The director said.

Dean gave Sarah a look that said 'just do it' and then he laid down on the couch. Sarah sighed then walked over to him and roughly took off his shoes. Then she snatched the blanket and made it snap open, hitting him in the process.

"Uh, hold it. Hold it. Jane, sweetie, we're going for a more tender scene. Not angry. Could we try it again but this time, not quite so rough. Alright?" the director explained.

"Fine." She sighed.

Two crew members walked over. One refolded the blanket and the other put Dean's shoes back on. Then the director told her to start again.

Sarah took his shoes off again, a little slower this time and then draped the blanket on him. She then turned to walk away. Dean grabbed her hand and just like the night before, he pulled her onto the couch quickly. He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close and stared down at her. Both of them stared breathing heavier. Dean placed a hand on her cheek.

"Okay. Good! Now kiss her." The director said.

Before Sarah could think, Dean closed the gap, crushing his lips on hers. The world dropped away for a moment before they heard "Cut! That was great!" Sarah pushed Dean away, returning to her senses.

"Great! Let's do that again from the top."

Sarah stared up at Dean before wiggling out from under him "No. No." she said as she crashed to the floor. She then tried to hurry away from the room but was stopped.

"Jane. I know, you hate doing these types of scenes but we need to get it done, so we can make our day. So let's not prolong the inevitable. Just do this a couple of times for the camera and then you're done." A crew member said, while blocking her exit.

"Fine." She said sullenly.

They filmed the scene a few times before the director yelled, "That's a wrap." As soon as Sarah heard that she quickly ran off the set, ignoring Dean's attempts to catch up to her. She managed to ditch him and kept running until she saw a trailer that was marked, 'J. Reynolds'. She looked around quickly to make sure no one was watching then ventured inside.

This trailer was much more modest than Jensen's. No helicopter or aquarium. Just a couch and kitchenette.

She sat down on the couch and watched the raw footage of the show, for a few hours.

'Wow. We really suck at acting.' She thought as the scene the three of them from early showed on the screen. Just watching Sam awkwardly try to figure out what to do with his hands, threw Sarah into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. 'Oh I need a dvd of this'. She thought before the scene changed to the one of her and Dean on the couch. Instantly, she stopped laughing. She watched the intense look on Dean's face as he stared down at her and her equally intense gaze.

Feeling uncomfortable she got up and started looking around, trying to ignore the conflicting feelings inside her. Looking over at the table, she saw a script sitting there and began to thumb through it. As she was flipping through it, she found something that made the anger inside of her intensify. She stormed out of the trailer and searched around for Dean. She found him on the set that looked like Bobby's house, talking with Sam.

"Well, I'm just saying. No hell below us, above us only sky." She overheard Dean say.

"Dean, our friends are back there." Sam said.

"Yeah, but here, you got a pretty good life. I mean, back home, the hits have been coming since you were 6 months old. You got to admit, being a-a- bazillionare, married to Rub, the whole package. Sarah and I could finally be together without all the crap that's gotten between us. It's no contest."

"No, you know, you were right. We just don't mean the same thing here. I mean, we're not even brothers here, man." Sam said.

"Alright, then. Let's get our crazy show back home. First, let's find Sarah."

Sarah waited a moment then walked over to them, tucking the script into her inner jacket pocket with the magazine. "I'm here. So I gather Virgil's here?" She said.

Relief showed on the boys faces. "Yeah. He followed us and killed fake Cas." Sam said.

"Lovely. Well, what's the plan?" She asked. Her voice showing that she didn't really care.

"He's gotta return to the place he crossed over for Raph. to pull him back. So we have to track him down and get the key back before that." Sam informed.

"Okay. Let's do this." She said. Dean gave her an odd look.

"Sam, would you give me and Sarah a minute?" Dean asked. Sam nodded and walked away. "What's wrong? Where have you been?"

"Don't like it when you don't have control over me, do you?"

"What? I've never wanted control over you."

"Sure. That's why you made Cas put that leash on me." She spat back.

"I did that for your own safety. If I hadn't you'd probably be dead by now."

"You don't know that."

"What's gotten into you? Is this because of the other night? Because from where I was, it looked like both of us wanted that."

"Well you were wrong." She said.

They were interrupted by Sam yelling and gunshots firing. Dean snapped into action and lunged at Virgil. Sarah and Sam joined the fight.

"Dean! Got it!" Sam yelled.

Sarah noticed a sigil glowing in the window nearby. "Raphael. Run!" But it was was too late. They were all pulled through the window and back into their world.

Sarah landed half on top of Dean and half under Sam. "Ugh! Why can't I ever land away from you two?" She complained getting up.

"You three… have the strangest luck." A black woman in a pants suit said.

"Raphael? Nice meatsuit." Dean said then muttered to Sam and Sarah, "Dude looks like a lady."

Raphael squeezed her fist and Sam, Sarah and Dean doubled over in pain. "The key." She said picking it up from the ground.

"And that will open you a locker at the Albany bus station." Balthazar said appearing out of nowhere.

"Really." Raphael said skeptically.

"You see, I needed a modest decoy to make it more convincing." Balthazar said.

"Give me the weapons." Raphael commanded.

"Sorry darling. They're gone." Balthazar said cheekily.

"What?" Raphael exclaimed.

"I said, too bloody late. You see, they were so well-hidden that I needed time to find them. So, I volunteered these two marmosets and their bonny lass for a game of fetch with Virgil. You three were such an adequate stick. Thank you. Thank you, boys." Balthazar said.

"You've made your last mistake." Raphael said menacingly.

"Oh, I've got a few more up my sleeve, honey." Balthazar joked.

"Step away from him, Raphael. I have the weapons now. Their power is with me." Castiel said appearing.

"Castiel." Raphael growled.

"If you don't want to die tonight, back off." Cas warned and with that Raphael disappeared.

"Well, Cas...Now that you have your sword, try not to die by it." Balthazar said before disappearing before Castiel teleported Sam, Sarah and Dean back to Bobby's house.

"Cas, what the hell? Wait, wait, you were in on this, using us a diversion?" Sam accused.

"It was Balthazar's plan. I would have done the same thing." Cas stated.

"That's not comforting, Cass." Dean growled.

"When will I be able to make you understand? If I lose against Raphael, we all lose. Everything." Cas said angrily.

"Yeah, Cass. We know the stakes. That's about all you've told us!" Dean yelled at Cas.

"I'm sorry about all this." Cas said.

Sarah strode over to him and smacked him across the face. As she held her throbbing hand, she said, "You're not sorry. Stop lying to us you spineless jerk!"

Cas sighed, "I'll explain later." Then he disappeared.

"Friggin' angels." Dean growled.

Sam walked over to a wall and knocked on it. "Solid." He said letting out a sigh of relief, "It's real. Nice."

"Yeah. Yeah, real, moldy, termite-eaten home sweet home. Chock full of crap that want to skin you. Oh, and, uh, we're broke again." Dean said sadly.

"Yeah. But, hey...At least we're talking." Sam replied then let out a little chuckle.

Sarah rolled her eyes and walked into the kitchen, grabbed a towel and started to fill it with ice.

"Here," Dean said moving her away from the fridge to sit at the table. Then he sat across from her and gently grabbed her injured hand closer so he could examine it.

"I just need some ice, Dean. You don't need to…"

"It sounded like you broke something. I think we should wrap it up." Dean instructed.

"Just leave it. I'll be fine." She said harshly.

Dean huffed. "What were you doing, slapping Cas like that?"

"I felt like it. And you can't tell me that he didn't deserve it."

"I'm not saying that."

"And you know what? Next time I run into that bitch, Raphael, I'm gonna give her one too."

"Sarah…"

"Balthazar, also. He needs to be knocked down a peg."

"Sarah, you can't just go up to them and hit them. Trust me I wish I could too, but… we all have to be careful right now."

"Whatever." She said angrily.

"What is your deal?" Dean asked as he wrapped her hand with an bandage.

"What is my deal? How about I'm sick of being surrounded by liars."

"Okay…" he said confused.

"Oh cut the crap, Dean. I know."

"Know what?"

Sarah pulled her necklace off and slammed the rings that were hanging on it, down on the table in front of Dean. "I know that Cas put the charm on my rings. Not on me. And you knew that."

Dean stopped his movements and looked up at her. "Uh… uh… what?" he asked nervously.

Sarah reached into her jacket and pulled out the Supernatural script and threw it at him. "It's all in there. After we had sex, you felt guilty about not telling me the truth and it showed a flashback of you and Cas working the whole thing out. You knew the only things I would not ever be without were those rings. So you had him put the boundary charm on them. How could you do that?" She picked up her engagement ring. "You know that this is all that I have left of Jason."

"I couldn't lose you again!" Dean said quietly.

"You picked a pretty poor way of saying that." Sarah spat. Getting up and walking away.

"Hey, I tried to get you to stay, but you were on your suicide mission. So I made it so you couldn't run away." Dean said catching up and stopping her. " I admit, not my best move, but I was desperate. I was losing Sam, I didn't know if I could save him. But the worst, the worst was the thought of losing you forever. You were so determined to die. I just couldn't take it. I did the only thing I could of to keep you safe. To keep you with me. I know it was selfish, I just didn't care." Dean put his hands on her shoulders. "I love you, Sarah. I knew this would probably blow up in my face, I just didn't care. You're safe and you're hunting with me again. And even though everything has been falling apart, I was happy just to have you with me. Even if you ended up hating my guts."

"Well you got one thing right." She said glaring at him, "I do hate you now, more than I did ever before." She pushed his hands off her shoulders and looked over at her rings still sitting on the table. "Just so you know, I tried to get away from Raphael when he pulled us back to this universe. I wanted to stay there. Alone. I wanted to finally be able to move on. But it's now just one more thing that's been taken away from me." She turned to walk away but stopped and said without looking back, "Do not follow me. Do not try to stop me. I won't hesitate to kill you if you ever try to come near me again." And then she left.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A little over a month later…

Sarah had been traveling around for a while. Just constantly driving. Not wanting to stop anywhere too long. Sam tried to keep in touch with her after she left. Dean knew better than to try.

She sighed as her phone rang for the third time in 2 minutes. "Seriously Sam. You really need to stop calling. Once in a while is one thing but this is getting ridiculous." She said into the phone.

"Just shut up! This is serious!" Sam growled hurriedly.

"What is it this time? You know what? Don't tell me. I don't want to know." She said about to hang up.

"Just listen, for your own safety."

"What is it, Sam?" She huffed.

"Cas is working with Crowley."

"What?" Sarah yelled swerving on the road. "How?"

"They are trying to get the souls from Purgatory, so Cas can defeat Raphael. Sarah, he's gone dark side."

"What the… I don't believe it. That's just crazy." She said stunned.

"It's true. And, uh, he's, well… Crowley's going after people we love to keep us off their trail."

"Who? Who have they hurt?"

"Well… I don't know about hurt but they've taken…"

"Who?" Sarah asked again not understanding Sam's reluctance to tell her.

"Lisa and Ben. Crowley has them." Sam finally said.

Sarah's blood instantly turned cold. "Well, I hope you two can find them." She said quickly hanging up.

She continued to drive for a while trying to push everything from her mind, trying not to care about the others problems. But eventually her conscience got the better of her. She pulled over and started pacing.

"Grr…. Dammit!" She growled taking out her phone and dialing Sam back.

"Sarah?" he said answering on the first ring.

"Alright. I give. What can I do to help?" She asked still pacing but stopped as she turned and saw Crowley.

"Hello, Sweetheart." Crowley said smugly.

"You bastard." She said venomously, lowering her phone as Sam began to yell for her, sensing something was wrong.

"Now, now. I thought you'd be happy. Dean's other woman and her kid are out of the way. You can have your precious Dean all to yourself." Crowley said.

"You have some nerve showing up here. You do know my track record for killing Demons right?" Sarah asked eyeing him warily. "And you're alone too. I'm insulted."

Crowley pursed his lips then said, "Trust me, Darling, I am taking every precaution."

Just then Sarah was shot with a dart. She pulled it from her neck and stared down at it for a moment before collapsing.

Crowley walked over and grabbed her phone from the ground beside her. "Hello, Sam."

"Crowley, leave her alone." Sam growled into the phone.

"Hm… how about no. Let's see if you and your moronic brother can save both girls, shall we?" he said then hung up.

Sarah woke up in some sort of abandoned factory. She scanned her surroundings while trying to free her hands.

"Hey! Are you alright?" A young boy asked from nearby.

"Ben… they'll hear you." A woman hushed.

"Ben?" Sarah asked turning as much as possible to see him.

"Yeah…?"

"So that would make you Lisa?" Sarah asked.

Lisa gave Sarah a confused look. "Who are you?"

Sarah straightened her body and laid her head back against the wall. "I'm Sarah."

"Wait? Sarah? The Sarah? As in Dean's sister Sarah?" Ben asked. Sarah's head snapped up. "You are, aren't you? You look just like he described you." Ben said.

"He… spoke of me?" she asked.

"Every now and then, he would tell me stories about you and Sam. The way he talked about you, I thought you were dead." Ben explained.

"Me, too." Lisa said softly.

"I was." Sarah said sadly then felt a wave of frustration rush through her at the sudden return of longing for Dean. She snapped at this new mix of emotion. "I'm not his sister."

"But he said…" Ben said confused.

"Well he lied. He's good at that." Sarah said a little too loudly.

"Oh now, now. I thought you were running all cold when it comes to Dean. Looks like some old feelings are returning, hm…?" Crowley asked coming into view.

"Crowley, you bastard! When I free myself I'll skin you alive!" she spat.

Crowley squatted down and held Sarah's face to look in her eyes. "Astonishing. Just astonishing. After all he's done to you, it's astonishing, but there is still a spark. Isn't there?" he smiled, deviously. "Perfect."

Sarah gave him a slightly confused look, "Why is that so important? You're just trying to keep Sam and Dean distracted."

Crowley laughed a little. "This isn't just about them. You're a mighty prize. The illustrious demon huntress. No, I am going to have fun with you, sweetheart." He straightened up and signaled to someone. "But unfortunately I'm a little busy looking for Purgatory. So I'll leave you in the hands of someone you might remember." And with a final smirk he vanished and all Sarah could see was a well-built man with short brown hair and a nasty sneer.

"Who the hell are you?" Sarah growled.

"Oh, I think it will come to you, sooner or later. I mean, you have seen me in a few different meat suits. But I have to say none were as 'comfy' as ol- what's his name. Oh that's right, Jason." He said leering at her.

Realization dawned on her, "You son of a Bitch!" she yelled thrashing against her bonds.

"Oh, there will be plenty of time for that later. Much later." Then he back handed her across the face, so hard that she blacked out.

She woke up a few hours later to find herself strapped to a table.

"Oh, good. You're awake." The demon said holding up a small knife. "Let's begin shall we."

After a while of slicing and painful torture, the demon walked over to her with a syringe.

"What's that?" She asked through a labored breath.

"What this?" the demon asked, "This is something, new. You see, I find the art of traditional torture… boring. So, let's try something new, shall we?" he pressed the syringe into her arm, which instantly felt on fire. "Tell me, and be truthful, how do you feel?" he asked in mock concern.

She tried to ignore the pain that felt like she was being ripped apart from the inside out but as the pain spread across her body, she couldn't help but let out a gut wrenching scream.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Sarah! Sarah! Wake up, Cakes!" Sarah heard through the fog.

"Dean?..." She whispered working on opening her eyes a little.

"Come on, Cakes. Open your eyes. Please just open your eyes." Dean expressed holding Sarah's head in his hands.

"Hmm…" she mumbled, managing to open her eyes just enough to see the demon that had tortured her dead on the floor.

"Dean, we need to get her back to Bobby's, I think this is Djinn poison." Sam said.

Sarah a woke to the smell of whiskey and musty books.

"Bobby?" She asked opening up her eyes.

She heard something fall then he came into view hurriedly.

"Oh thank God! You had us worried girly." He said kneeling down next to her.

"What happened? How did I get here?" she asked with a very dry raspy voice.

Bobby reached over and grabbed a bottle of water from the desk and helped her drink some. "Well, the boys managed to find you with Balthazar's help. You were injected with some sort of Djinn poison. You looked… Well they got you and took care of the demons there. And got you back here, so we could fix you up. Only we weren't sure if… if you'd wake up or not."

Sarah moved to sit up, feeling how painful most of the movements were. "Well, I did. Where are the boys?"

"They're outside."

"I want to see them." She said slowly standing up.

"Now, just you wait. I'll bring them in. No need to exhaust yourself. Just sit back down." Bobby scolded trying to get her to sit down.

"No. I'm alright. I'm just a little weak. I want to go to them." She said then slowly started to walk toward the door. Each step stronger than the one before it.

She walked outside and heard familiar voice coming from the direction of the garage and followed them. As she rounded the corner, she saw them standing over a map.

"Hello, boys." She said getting their attention.

Sam looked up first, and in that first moment, she saw him go from confused to surprised. "Sarah?" he asked as he walked toward her.

"Hey, Sambo. You miss me?" She asked closing the gap and pulling him into a hug, ignoring the pain from her injuries.

"Oh, it is so good to see you." He said gently, wrapping his arms around her.

After a moment, she pulled away and looked at a stunned and slightly jealous Dean.

She walked over to Dean slowly. He looked hesitant to say or do anything after the last time they'd been face to face.

"Dean." She said.

"Sarah. I'm glad you're…" Dean started to say but was cut off as Sarah leaped forward and kissed him. He stood in shock as she kissed him for all she was worth. Slowly he relaxed into it and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tightly against him until she broke the kiss, crying out in pain. "I'm sorry! I forgot…" Dean said pulling away.

Sarah held onto him, "No, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay now." She said lightly kissing him.

Dean then gave her a confused look. "Wait. Where's all of this coming from?" He asked searching her eyes, "What happened to you?"

"Can't we just enjoy this right now?" Sarah asked softly, tears filling her eyes. She was vaguely aware that Sam and Bobby were getting closer.

"What happened? Last time we saw each other, you wanted to kill me." Dean stated.

"Why's that different from all the other times she's threatened you?" Bobby asked.

Sarah moved away slightly, looking down.

"The difference is that this time I believed she'd actually do it." Dean said getting a slightly shocked look from Sam and Bobby. "So tell me, Sarah, what did they do?"

"What did they do? Well for one they tortured me. As you can see, they cut me up pretty good." She said getting upset.

"No, offense Sarah, but you're no stranger to torture. I've seen you withstand a lot." Sam interjected.

Her eyes overflowed with tears. "What's the point? I'm here now."

"If something happened, we need to know." Bobby said gently.

"Wait." Sam said. The others looked to him and saw he was working something out in his head. "Sarah, when we found you, you were strung out on Djinn poison." Sam said. Sarah looked away. "What did you see?"

She sighed and said, while tears continued to fall down her face, "They made me relive my worst nightmares."

"What?" Dean blurted out.

"Every single one. You and Sam turning on me. Beating me. All of you dying in front of my eyes and not being able to do anything. My child dying. Killing Jason. I lived all of it over and over again."

They were all silent a moment before Bobby said, "I thought Djinns granted wish type dreams."

"The demon that tortured me said it was something new. An experiment." She said finishing in a whisper.

"Sarah… I'm sorry." Sam said.

Just then Bobby's phone rang. "Ellie?... What?!... I'll be right there." He said before shutting his phone and looked up at the boys anxiously. "We gotta go."

Sam patted Sarah's shoulder before following Bobby inside. Dean stayed with her.

"Let's go." Sarah said walking toward the house, wiping her face with one hand. "You can fill me in on the drive."

Dean caught her arm, "Where do you think you're going?"

"You don't think I'm going to sit here twiddling my thumbs, do you? I'm not going to let them get away with what they did to me." She said harshly, then softened and cupped Dean's face with her hands. "I'll be fine. I promise I'm a whole new Sarah now and I'm not going to let them take anyone away from me again." Then she kissed him softly. "Plus, I know you'll protect me."

Sarah was leaning against the impala, annoyed that Dean wouldn't let her go with them to find the woman that had called Bobby for help. He kept saying she needed to rest.

They had been gone a few minutes when Castiel appeared before her.

"Cas… What are you doing here?" she asked cautiously.

"'I'm sorry. Crowley… got carried away." Cas said guiltily.

"After all that we've been through together and all you have to say is Crowley got carried away? Are you kidding me? Do you honestly believe that Cas? He had me tortured. I have wounds all over my body, not to mention all the damage he's done to me mentally."

"I know… and I plan to rectify that." He said then quickly touched her forehead, healing her wounds.

Sarah looked at him surprised. "Why?"

"I'm sorry… for everything. Especially what I have to do now." Cas said before disappearing.

"Cas? Cas!" Sarah yelled out before racing in the direction the boys had gone.

She heard Dean yell, 'Save him from what?' Then rounded a corner to see Cas touch Sam's temple. Sam yelled in pain before crumbling to the ground. Cas disappeared.

"Sam!" Dean yelled rushing over to Sam.

"Dean! Keys!" she yelled as she approached him. He threw her the car keys without looking up. After catching them she ran back to the impala and drove it down the alleyway to the boys. She parked next to them, hopped out and helped to get Sam into the backseat with her. Dean then sped away, racing back to Bobby's.

Sarah tried to keep Sam comfortable, even though he was scrunched up in the backseat. She silently stroked his hair.

After a while she pulled off her old bandages, remembering that Cas had healed her.

"What happened with you?" Dean asked spotting her movement.

"Cas healed me before…" She said quietly.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Once back at Bobby's, they managed to get Sam down in the panic room. Sarah sat holding Sam's hand while Dean and Bobby drew angel proofing sigils on the walls.

And there she sat. Not moving. Dean blew up on her and Bobby a few times in frustration. She tried only once to comfort him but that just caused him to become even more distant.

A while later…

"Look what the cat dragged in." Bobby said getting their attention. Sarah looked up and saw Balthazar standing just outside the panic room door.

"Well, at least you mudfish finally got the angel-proofing right." Balthazar said then pointed to Sam, "How's Sleeping Beauty? You didn't steal any kisses, I trust?"

"What the hell took you so long?" Dean asked as he walked up to Balthazar. Sarah and Bobby stood behind him slightly.

"Honestly? I was having second thoughts." Balthazar stated.

"About?" Dean asked.

"About whether to help you. I was thinking maybe... Maybe I should rip out your sticky bits instead." Balthazar said.

"Why you spineless…" Sarah started to say before Bobby silenced her.

"And what did you decide?" Bobby asked.

"Well..." Balthazar said looking over at Sarah before handing a piece of paper to Dean. "Cas and Crowley are there. That's where the show gets started."

Dean looked at it then showed it to Bobby, "Alright, well give us a minute to pack up and then zap us there."

"Oh, no, no, no, no. I don't think so." Balthazar said.

"Balthazar." Dean grunted.

"Stop being an ass, Balthazar." Sarah growled advancing on him.

"I'm betraying a friend here. A very powerful friend. We all are. So I think I've stuck my neck out far enough already. Good luck." Balthazar said then disappeared before Sarah could punch him.

"What a dick!" She yelled before storming upstairs.

* * *

A little while later…

"Times up, you two." Bobby said.

"Yeah, just a moment." Dean said walking over to Sam and kneeling down. "Alright, this is where we're gonna be, Sam. You get your lazy ass out of bed and come and meet us. Sammy, please." He put a piece of paper on the cot next to Sam and placed a gun on top of it. Then he got up and walked out of the room. "Let's go," he said to Sarah.

"Give me a minute." She said then added when Dean gave her an exasperated look, "I'll be right up. I promise."

When Dean had gone upstairs, Sarah moved over to Sam and knelt down next to him. Taking his hand, she said, "Hey, Sambo, please keep fighting. Don't give up. I don't think any of us will recover if you leave again. And you know how you and your brother deal with this stuff. You push people away and …" she choked back a sob, "I love you, Sambo. You are my best friend and my little brother. You cannot leave me. We need you! Just remember to keep fighting." She placed a kiss on his forehead then went upstairs.

* * *

Sarah, Dean and Bobby parked a little ways away from the address Balthazar had given them.

"I count a dozen mooks, probably more." Bobby said looking through a pair of binoculars.

"Demons?" Dean asked.

"Angels." Bobby stated.

"Great." Sarah mumbled.

"Well how the hell are we gonna take out that many angels?" Dean asked.

"We don't. We'll ninja our way in." Bobby suggested.

"Awesome. Yeah, 'til they hear your knee squeak or Sarah's sniffling." Dean said sarcastically.

"Shut up." Bobby said. Sarah just rolled her eyes.

"Oh, what, now you got thin skin?" Dean asked.

"No, shut up. You hear that?" Bobby asked quietly.

"What the hell is that?" Dean asked then pointed to a nearby puddle that was rippling from vibrations, "T-Rex maybe?"

"Guys…" Sarah said getting their attention and pointing at a large cloud of demon smoke that was rapidly approaching.

"Holy mother of …" Bobby mumbled.

"Get in the car! Get in the car!" Dean yelled.

They ran back to the impala. Dean and Sarah jumped into the front seat and Bobby hurried into the backseat.

The demon smoke flipped the impala upside down, knocking everyone out, then continued to the building.

"Uh…" Dean grunted waking up to find a par of breast cushioning his head. He pushed up a little and saw that Sarah was lying half under him and half outside.

"Sarah? Bobby?" Dean said waking them. "Come on, we gotta go."

They slowly crawled out of the wreckage. Dean helped Sarah to stand.

"Aah!" She said involuntarily at a pain coming from her back.

"You hurt?" Dean asked gruffly, not really caring.

"I'm fine." She said curtly, before she limped past him.

They snuck into the building and saw Crowley and Raphael performing the spell to open Purgatory.

Dean threw his angel knife at Raphael. With his back turned, Raphael caught it. He and Crowley turned to look at Bobby, Dean and Sarah. Telekinetically, Crowley threw Bobby and Dean down the stairs. Dean landed on a table before he was thrown to the floor.

"Bit busy, gentlemen. Be with you in a moment." Crowley said then looked up at Sarah. "Well hello, Sweetheart. I see Thing 1 and Thing 2 managed to find you."

"Crowley." Sarah growled starting to limp down the stairs.

"Not now, pet." Crowley said throwing her to the floor. "But stick around. Enjoy the show." He added before pushing her against a wall and holding her there with his powers, before returning to the chant. "Aperit fauces eius ad mundum nostrum, nunc, ianua magna aperta tandem!" He waited but nothing happened.

"Well that was anti-climactic, dickwad" Sarah mocked.

"Can it power puff!" Crowley snapped at her using his powers to make her insides twist in pain. "Maybe I said it wrong."

"You think?" Sarah said through gasps of pain.

Crowley turned to yell at her again but was interrupted by Castiel appearing and saying, "You said it perfectly. All you needed was this." He placed an empty jar on a nearby table. Dean and Bobby stood up.

"I see." Crowley said before walking over to the wall and touching the blood. "And we've been working with..." (he tastes it) "Dog blood. Naturally."

"Enough of these games, Castiel. Give us the blood." Raphael chimed in.

"You- Game's over. His jar's empty. So, Castiel, how'd your ritual go?" Crowley said. "Better than ours, I'll bet."

Castiel just smirked and closed his eyes letting a blinding while light fill the room. Everyone shielded their eyes. Once the light faded, Cas said, "You can't imagine. What it's like. They're all inside me. Millions of souls."

"Sounds sexy. Exit stage Crowley." Crowley said before disappearing.

Raphael looked at Cas frightened.

"Now, what's the matter, Raphael? Somebody clip your wings?" Cas crooned.

"Castiel, please. You let the demon go, but not your own brother?" Raphael tried.

"The demon I have plans for. You on the other hand..."Cas said before snapping his fingers, causing Raphael to explode. "So, you see, I saved you."

"Sure thing, Cas. Thank you." Dean said cautiously. Sarah finally moved to stand up, since Crowley was no longer keeping her tethered to the wall.

"You doubted me, fought against me, but I was right all along." Cas gloated.

"Okay, Cas, you were. We're sorry. Now let's just defuse you, okay?" Dean said.

"What do you mean?" Cas asked.

"You're full of nuke. It's not safe. So, before the eclipse ends, let's get them souls back to where they belong." Dean reasoned.

"Oh no, they belong with me."

"No, Cas, it's it-it's scrambling your brain." Dean said.

"No, I'm not finished yet. Raphael had many followers, and I must punish them all severely."

"Listen to me. Listen, I know there's a lot of bad water under the bridge, but we were family once. I'd have died for you. I almost did a few times. So if that means anything to you... Please. I've lost Lisa, I've lost Ben, and now I've lost Sam. Don't make me lose you too. You don't need this kind of juice anymore, Cas. Get rid of it before it kills us all." Dean implored.

"You're just saying that because I won. Because you're afraid. You're not my family, Dean. I have no family." Cas declared, right before Sam stabbed him in the back with an angel sword. Nothing happened. Cas pulled the sword out and put it down. "I'm glad you made it, Sam. But the angel blade won't work, because I'm not an angel anymore. I'm your new God. A better one. So you will bow down and profess your love unto me, your Lord. Or I shall destroy you."

They all stared in stunned silence until Bobby got down on his knees.

"Well, all right then. Is this good, or you want the whole "forehead to the carpet" thing?" Bobby asked. "Guys?" He said to Dean, Sam and Sarah to follow his example.

Dean and Sam started to kneel but Sarah remained planted to her spot.

"Stop. What's the point if you don't mean it? You fear me. Not love, not respect, just fear." Cas said.

"Cas..." Sam started to say.

"Sam, you have nothing to say to me; you stabbed me in the back." Cas then turned to Bobby and Dean, "Get up."

"Cas, come on, this isn't you." Dean said standing up again.

"The Castiel you knew is gone."

"So what, then? Kill us?" Dean asked.

"What a brave little ant you are. You know you're powerless, you wouldn't dare move against me again. That would be pointless. So I have no need to kill you. Not now. Besides...once you were my favorite pets before you turned and bit me."

"Who are you?" Dean asked.

"I'm God. And if you stay in your place, you may live in my kingdom. If you rise up, I will strike you down. Not doing so well, are you Sam?"

"I'm fine...(clears throat)...I'm...fine." Sam stuttered.

"You said you would fix him - you promised!" Dean growled.

"If you stood down, which you hardly did. Be thankful for my mercy. I could have cast you back into the pit." Cas threatened.

"Cas you can't be serious. You can't honestly be threatening us for not standing down. You know us. You know that would have made us try harder. You really are just a baby in a trench coat." Sarah blurted out walking closer to him.

"Sarah!" Dean growled, trying to quiet her.

"You get an ounce of power and all of a sudden you're a completely different person! Are you forgetting all that we've been through together? Do you blame us for trying to stop you? You do realize that we are not stand back and let things happen people. We are the Champions of the world! So you better smite us now or I swear to the real God that we will find a way to stop you." She finished. Dean grabbed her and put a hand over her mouth. Cas just glaring at her.

"Cas, come on, this is nuts! She's nuts! You can turn this around, please!" Dean begged.

"I hope for your sake this is the last you see me." Cas said then vanished.

Once Cas was gone, Dean let go of Sarah. "What the hell, Sarah? You trying to get us all killed?" Dean demanded.

"I just proved that he still won't hurt us. Well at least not kill us." Sarah said suddenly feeling weak.

"Next time, just stay quiet." Dean growled before looking over at Sam and seeing his nose start to bleed. "Sam, you okay?"

Sam stared into space for a moment before falling to the ground.

"Sam!" Sarah yelled.

* * *

They managed to get Sam back to Bobby's house. Sarah stayed to watch over Sam while Bobby and Dean took the tow truck to get the wrecked impala. She patched up a deep cut on his hand and washed the blood off his face.

After a while, Dean and Bobby returned.

"How is he?" Dean asked.

"The same. He does have a nasty gash on his left hand though, but I stitched it up." Sarah said before yawning.

"Hey, why don't you go get some rest. You look really pale." Dean said.

"I'm fine… but I think I will get cleaned up." She said as she stood up. "I'll be…" she said before crumbling. Dean quickly caught her before she hit the floor.

"Sarah? Sarah!" she heard him yell as she blacked out. "Dammit!"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Sarah woke the next day to find she was lying in one of the beds upstairs at Bobby's house. She couldn't remember how she got there.

She slowly got up and realized that she was not wearing a shirt. "What the hell?" she muttered, noticing the large bandage on her lower back. Then the events of the previous night came flooding back.

She looked around and found one of Dean's old Led Zeppelin t-shirts in one of the dresser drawers and put it on before limping downstairs to find the others. She only saw Sam asleep on the couch, so she started looking outside and heard Dean and Bobby talking.

"Well, figure it out! I'm sorry. This ain't in no book. If you stick your neck out, Cas steps on it. So you know what I'm gonna do?" She overheard Dean say frustrated.

"What?" Bobby asked.

"I'm gonna fix this car. Because that's what I can do. I can work on her 'til she's mint. And when Sam wakes up, no matter what shape he's in, we'll glue him back together too. We owe him that."

"I'm with you, there… uh, what about… Sarah?" Bobby asked cautiously.

"What about her?" Dean asked gruffly.

"Don't you think she's gone a little more off her rocker than normal? You know… practically telling Cas to kill us…"

She heard Dean sigh heavily, "I don't know, Bobby. She… seems to be a little bit different every time we find her. But she also gets ballsier."

"Well ballsy is fine, but reckless… is not." Bobby said.

"What do you want me to do, Bobby? Make her leave? Lock her up?" Dean asked tiredly.

Sarah quickly made her way back to the house and started pacing in the library. She was angry and hurt by what she'd heard but knew that it was true. She thought for a minute about leaving but knew their best bet for survival was to stay together.

So after a few minutes of pacing, she grabbed a stack of books and headed for one of the rooms upstairs.

Bobby poked his head in a few hours later.

"Hey, kiddo, you doing okay?" he asked tentatively.

"Yeah. Just doing some light reading." She said not looking up from the humungous book she was reading.

"Uh… how's your back doing? We stitched it up after you blacked out."

"It's fine." She answered.

"Let me take a look and see if you need it re-dressed."

"Bobby, I'm fine. You should worry about Sam, not me." She snapped.

He left quickly, grumbling the whole way.

A few hours later…

"Sarah! Get your ass down here!" Dean yelled up the stairs.

Sarah hopped up and hurried downstairs. "What? What happened?"

"We have a lead on Cas." Dean said leading her into the kitchen where the TV was waiting. Bobby and Sam joined them a moment later.

'The sudden deaths of some 200 religious leaders are currently under investigation. The Vatican has yet to issue a statement, but some are already calling this an act of God.' The TV announcer reported.

'We all saw him. No beard, no robe. He was young...and...and sexy. He had a raincoat.' A woman who was being interviewed stated.

Dean shut off the TV.

"Well that's just dandy." Sarah muttered.

Over the next couple of days, they listened to the reports of the people Cas was killing.

One night she was cooking up dinner when all three men walked in with determination.

"What? What's happened now?" She asked.

"We… are gonna try something." Sam said tentatively.

"Okay… Does that mean I should stop making dinner?"

"Dinner? No… There's time for that later." Dean said as his stomach growled.

Sarah continued to chop the vegetables as she talked, "So what's your idea?"

"Death."

After gathering the supplies, Bobby performed the summoning ritual. Crowley appeared in a devil's trap.

"No. No! No! Come on!" Crowley yelled.

"Don't act so surprised." Bobby said.

"My new boss is going to kill me for even talking to you lads." Crowley said.

"Oh, Crowley, I'm hurt. You're not even going to acknowledge me?" Sarah said sarcastically.

He glared over at her and said, "Don't get me started on you."

"Hey, you're lucky we're not stabbing you in your scuzzy face, you little piece..." Dean growled.

"Whoa, wait! What new boss?" Sam interrupted.

"Castiel, you giraffe." Crowley barked.

"Is your boss?" Bobby asked.

"Is everybody's boss. What do you think he's going to do if he finds out we've been conspiring? You do you want to conspire, don't you?" Crowley replied.

"No. We want you to just stand there and look pretty." Bobby said sarcastically.

"Like that's possible." Sarah muttered.

"We need a spell to bind Death." Dean said ignoring her.

"Bind? Enslave Death? You having a laugh?" Crowley jested.

"Lucifer did it." Dean said.

"That's Lucifer." Crowley replied.

"A spell's a spell." Sam inserted.

"You really believe you can handle that kind of horsepower? You're delusional!" Crowley yelled.

"Death is the only player on the board left that has the kind of juice to take Cas." Dean explained.

"They'll both mash us like peas. Why should I help with a suicide mission?" Crowley asked.

"Look! Do you really want Cas running the universe?" Bobby asked.

Crowley looked down and poured himself another glass of liquor.

"Let me ask you this. Do you want to help or do you want to be locked in a room with me. Think you will make it out of here with a better fate than… gruffy? I have so many more useful tools here to use." Sarah said walking forward until she was in front of him, just outside the devil's trap.

Crowley looked like he was going to burst with anger. "Oh alright. I'll get it. Let me out of this bloody thing."

Sarah smirked and walked upstairs leaving the boys to deal with Crowley.

"We make it out of this, I get her, alone in a room for five minutes." He said angrily watching her leave.

"Just find the spell." Dean growled.

"What? You lot obviously don't want her. I'll make it quick I promise. She won't feel a thing." Crowley offered.

"I said no! Just do your part or go bend over for Cas. Your pick." Dean barked before following after Sarah.

He found her in the living room with a bottle of whiskey, staring into space.

"Okay, spill. What was all that down there?" he asked.

"How mad was he?" She asked looking up at Dean. He just gave her a hard 'tell me' look. Sarah sighed, "I may have… killed one of his favorite pets."

"Pet?" Dean asked. "Crowley doesn't have pets…" something then dawned on him, "Wait, are you talking about a hell hound?" Sarah looked up at him innocently. "No, freaking way. You couldn't possibly."

"She couldn't possibly what?" Bobby asked as he and Sam walked into the room.

"Have killed a Hell Hound." Dean said not taking his eyes off her.

Bobby and Sam looked at her in disbelief.

"Is it so hard for you to believe that I'm good enough to take down something like that?" She asked taking another swing of whiskey.

"I'm sorry, Sarah, but that does sound a little out there." Sam interjected.

"Maybe if you told us how…" Bobby said.

She sighed again and stared at the floor.

"I knew it. What's the real reason Crowley is so mad at you?" Dean asked.

"I did kill his Hell Hound. I just had a little help that Crowley doesn't know about." She mumbled.

"Help? From who?" Bobby asked.

"Cas." She admitted looking up at them.

"Okay. You're going to have to explain this to us." Dean said leaning against the desk.

Taking one more sip of whiskey, she said, "It was just after Jason's death. I had hunted down enough demons to annoy Crowley enough to want to get rid of me. So he sent his best hound to finish me quickly. As soon as I heard the howling, I kept it at bay with gopher dust and called Cas for help. He helped me fight it but in the end I killed it with his angel blade. Crowley doesn't know Cas helped me and he's been doing everything he could to punish me." She explained.

"Like injecting you with Djinn poison." Sam interjected.

"Like having me tortured by the demon that possessed Jason." Sarah responded.

They all fell silent for a moment before Bobby asked, "But you only ganked the hound with heavenly help. Why do you keep taunting him?"

"Cuz if I didn't he'd know it was a fluke." She looked up at them then added, "I swear he's a little scared of me now. I don't know about you but I'd like to keep up that illusion than have him think he can kill me easily." They looked at her. "And it's a little fun to ruffle his feathers." She added with a smirk. Sam returned her smirk, Bobby walked off muttering something about 'idjit's' and Dean just looked like he wasn't sure if he was impressed or pissed at her reckless behavior before he returned to his serious demeanor.

"Was the demon that tortured you really the demon that possessed Jason?" Dean asked quietly.

Sarah's gaze fell to the floor, "Yep. He liked to tell me over and over again what it was like inside of Jason's head. The way he screamed and fought against the demon mentally. What it felt like when I stabbed him in the heart…" Sarah trailed off, wiping a stray tear away off her cheek. "But, he's gone now. You two took care of him when you saved me. So, thank you for that." She added giving them a small smile.

"Sarah, we didn't know…" Sam started to say.

"Hey, you boys want some pie?" She asked trying to change the subject.

Dean's head popped up, "Pie?"

A day later, Crowley sent them the spell to bind death.

"Well, who feels like hog tying death tonight?" Dean asked.

"You know I'm in." Sarah said.

"Old age is over-rated anyhow." Bobby replied.

They gathered all the ingredients that they could find for the spell but had to steal the last one.

They bypassed the security system and the security guard of the mansion, then separated to find the fulgurate. Sam and Bobby went one way while Dean and Sarah went the other.

They were searching opposite sides of the study when the owners snuck in behind Dean pointing a shotgun at him.

"Hi, uh… I don't want to hurt you. Really." Dean warned.

"I'm the one with the firearm, son." The owner retorted, his wife hiding behind him.

"I get that." Dean said with a small smirk.

Sarah snuck up behind them and cocked her gun loudly. "I'd drop that now, if I were you."

The owner looked back at her then said, "You wouldn't shoot us."

"You wanna bet." She said before Dean took the opportunity to disarm the owner.

"Alright, why don't you two take a seat over there." Dean instructed then proceeded to tie and gag them. When Dean and Sarah had finished tying them up, Bobby and Sam joined them. "Okay. Yeah. Good. Hey guys. Uh, so this is Dr. and Mrs. Weiss." Dean said introducing the couple he had just tied up.

"Hi, Sorry." Sam said awkwardly.

"I found the God thingy." Dean said leading them over to the desk.

"Well, let's light this candle." Bobby said as he began to set up for the spell.

"You're welcome." Dean said sarcastically after Bobby cut him to get the blood ingredient.

"Oh, don't be such a baby." Sarah chided. Dean gave her an un-amused look.

"Te nunc invoco, mortem. Te in mea potestate defixi. Nunc et in aeternum!" Bobby chanted. They all looked around but nothing happened.

"Um... Hello? Death?" Dean called out.

"You're joking." Death said appearing before them.

"I'm sorry, Death. This isn't what it seems." Dean said nervously. Sam began to slowly move in front of Sarah, in a protective stance.

"Seems like you bound me." Death said, lifting his hands to show the magical bonds.

"For good reason, okay? Just, uh, hear us out. Um... Fried pickle chip? They're the best in the state." Dean said showing the take out bag.

"That easy to soothe me, you think? This is about Sam's hallucinations, I assume?" Death asked.

"What?" Dean asked glancing over at a very nervous Sam.

"Sorry, Sam. One wall per customer. Now unbind me." Death demanded.

"We can't. Y-yet." Sam stammered. Sarah grabbed ahold of his hand reassuringly.

"This isn't going to end well." Death muttered.

"We need you to kill God." Dean said quickly.

"Pardon?" Dean asked his curiosity peaked.

"Kill God. You heard right. Your... Honor." Bobby said trying to make Death happy.

"What makes you think I can do that?" Death asked.

"You told me." Dean retorted.

"Why should I?" Death asked.

"Because... We said so, and we're the boss of you. I mean... Respectfully." Dean blurted out.

"Dean…" Sarah started saying before Sam squeezed her hand and gave her a 'don't' look.

"Amazing." Cas said appearing behind them.

"Cas." Sam said turning to face him and moving further in front of Sarah.

"I didn't want to kill you, but now..." Cas said raising his hands.

"You can't kill us." Dean interrupted.

"You've erased any nostalgia I had for you, Dean." Cas said simply.

"Death is our bitch. We ain't gonna die, even if God pulls the trigger." Dean boasted.

"Annoying little protozoa, aren't they? 'God'? You look awfully like a mutated angel to me. Your vessel's melting. You're going to explode." Death informed.

"No, I'm not. When I've finished my work, I'll repair myself." Cas answered.

"You think you can because you think you're simply under the weight of all those souls, yes? But that's not the worst problem. There are things much older than souls in Purgatory, and you gulped those in, too." Death explained.

"Irrelevant. I control them." Cas replied.

"For the moment." Death mumbled.

"Wait - uh, what older things?" Dean asked.

"Long before God created Angel and man, he made the first beasts - the Leviathans." Death replied.

"Leviathans?" Dean asked.

"I personally found them entertaining, but he was concerned they'd chomp the entire petri dish, so he locked them away. Why do you think he created Purgatory? To keep those clever, poisonous things out. Now Castiel has swallowed them. He's the one thin membrane between the old ones and your home."

"Enough." Cas warned.

"Stupid little soldier you are." Death mocked.

"Why? Because I dared open a door that he shut? Where is he? I did a service, taking his place." Cas argued.

"Service? Settling petty vendettas?" Death retorted.

"No. I'm cleaning up one mess after another - selflessly." Cas responded.

"Quite the humanitarian." Death replied sarcastically.

"And how would you know? What are you, really? A flyswatter?" Cas said.

"Destined to swat you, I think."

"Unless I take you first."

"Really bought his own press, this one. Please, Cas. I know God, and you, sir, are no God."

"All right, put your junk away, both of you. Look, call him what you want. Just kill him now!" Dean growled.

Cas turned to look at Dean, surprised.

"All right. Fine." Death said raising his hand to do that but Cas snapped his fingers first, releasing Death from his bonds. "Thank you. Shall we kick box now?" Cas gave him a look. Death turned and walked to the table with the pickle chips. "I had a tingle I'd be reaping someone very, very soon. Don't worry - not you." Death said to the hostages. Cas looked at Dean again before disappearing. "Well, he was in a hurry."

They all stood in nervous silence as Death at finished the pickle chips and the drink.

"Ahh…" Death murmured.

"Um…" Dean started to say.

"Shut up, Dean. I'm not here to tie your shoes every time you trip. I warned you about those souls how long ago? Long enough to stop that fool. And here we are again, with your little planet on the edge of immolation." Death said.

"Well, I'm sorry. All right? I've been trying to save this planet, so maybe you should find somebody better to tip off." Dean ranted.

"Maybe I should spend my effort on a better planet. Well, it's been amusing."

"Wait, h-hold on, hold on. Just - can you give us something? You - you have to care a little bit about what happens to us." Sam said nervously.

"Please." Sarah whispered., still being held back by Sam's iron grip.

"You know, I really don't. But I do find that little angel arrogant." Death said.

"Great. Let's go with that." Dean chimed in.

"Your only hope is to have him return it all to Purgatory. Quickly." Death advised.

"We need a door." Sam said.

"You have everything you need at that lab. Get him to return there and compel him to give up the power." Death explained.

"Compel?" Dean asked.

"Figure it out." Death said hastily.

"But that door only opens in the eclipse, and that's over." Bobby stated.

"I'll make another. 3:59 Sunday morning, just before dawn. Be punctual. Don't thank me. Clean up your mess. Try to bind me again, you'll die before you start. Nice pickle chips, by the way." Death said then vanished.

Back at Bobby's…

Sam walked outside exhausted.

"Did Dean do something stupid or are you on an acid trip?" Sarah asked from her seat on the porch swing.

Sam grumbled, "I'm fine."

"So then Dean's done something stupid." Sarah sighed, "What's it this time?"

"He… um… I just need to go for a walk." Sam said agitated before walking down the steps. He then stopped and turned around, "Why don't you and Dean go have some alone time?"

Sarah was surprised by his question but recovered and said, "I don't think I'm really what he wants anymore."

"What? Of course you are."

"What's he looking at today? Asian beauty's or anime porn?" Sarah asked tiredly.

"What?" Sam asked awkwardly, his voice raising an octave. "I, uh, I don't know…"

"Trust me, Sam, I don't think he really wants me after being with Lisa. And not just because of how beautiful she is. You see, with her, Dean was finally able to have a normal life. With me, he'll never have that and he knows it. He knows how much crazy I bring." Sarah said sadly.

"You can't be serious, Sarah." Sam said sitting next to her. "Has he said anything about this to you?"

"Not in so many words but I know. He barely looks at me anymore much less talk to me unless he has too. But that's okay. He's going through a lot right now. Your messed up noggin, Cas going off the deep end. He doesn't need any other drama added on."

"Sarah…"

"I, uh, need to stretch my legs." Sarah said quickly getting up and walking away.

She walked for a few minutes to regain her calm before walking inside, intending to go straight up to her room. But as she was about to walk past the kitchen, Cas appeared in the doorway, and fell to his knees.

"Sam?" Cas said.

Sarah rushed over to Cas forgetting that he was the enemy now.

"Cas?" Sam said skeptically.

"I heard your call. I need help." Cas said leaning into Sarah for support.

Sarah looked up to see Sam and Dean just staring in shock. "Go, get our supplies. Get Bobby." She said taking charge then added, "Now!"

The boys snapped out of their daze and piled into the impala. Once at the abandoned building, they sprinted to get everything ready.

"We need the right blood. There's a small jar - end of the hall, s-supply closet." Cas managed to get out as Sarah helped him sit on the floor.

"Got it." Sam said quickly heading for the door.

"Dean?" Cas called out.

"What, you need something else?" Dean asked gruffly.

"No. I feel regret, about you and what I did to Sam." Cas said.

"Yeah, well, you should." Dean said sternly.

"Dean." Sarah said sternly.

"If there was time, if I was strong enough, I'd - I'd fix him now. I just wanted to make amends before I die." Cas said sadly.

"Okay." Dean said coldly.

"Is it working?" Cas asked.

"Does it make you feel better?" Dean asked.

"No. You?" Cas asked.

"Not a bit." Dean replied.

"Dean. Can I talk to you for a moment?" Sarah asked grabbing his arm and pulling him to the doorway.

"What? I'm a little busy here." He growled.

"What?! Your best friend is dying in there." Sarah scolded.

"So?" he said with attitude.

"So, don't you want to say something to him? Or are you just going to let him die?"

"Sarah, don't. He betrayed us. He deserves everything he gets." Dean said angrily.

"And he is but that doesn't mean…"

"Where's Sam? It's go time?" Bobby said interrupting Sarah.

Dean just hurried down the hallway to find Sam but returned a minute later with the vial of blood but no Sam. He quickly drew the sigil on the wall with the blood.

"That's good enough." Bobby said then he and Dean helped Cas stand up. "Okay, step right up, Cas." Then Bobby began the chant, "Ianua magna purgatorii, clausa est ob nos lumine eius ab oculis nostris retento sed nunc stamus ad limen huius ianuae magnae et demisse fideliter perhonorifice paramus aperire eam."

Halfway through Cas turned to look at Dean, "I'm sorry, Dean."

"Creaturae terrificae quarum ungulae et dentes nunquam tetigerunt carnem eius ad mundum nostrum nunc ianua magna, aperta tandem!" Bobby finished the chant and the door to Purgatory opened in the wall. The souls were then pulled from inside Cas. Once the door was closed again Cas fell to the floor.

"Cas?" Dean asked.

They all rushed over to him.

"He's cold." Bobby said touching Cas' neck.

"Is he breathing?" Dean asked. Sarah's eyes filled with tears.

"No." Bobby answered.

"Maybe angels don't need to breathe." Dean said hopefully.

"He's gone, Dean." Bobby replied.

"Damn it. Cas, you child." Dean said as they all stood up. Sarah leaned into Dean and he put his arm around her. "Why didn't you listen to me?" Before their eyes, Cas healed. "Cas?! Hey! Hey! Okay. All right."

"That was unpleasant." Cas said as he sat up with their help.

"Let's get him up. Easy, there." Dean said helping Cas stand.

"I'm alive." Cas said skeptically.

"Looks like." Bobby replied.

"I'm astonished. Thank you - all of you." Cas said.

"We were mostly... just trying to save the world." Bobby stated.

Sarah couldn't hold back any longer and rushed forward and hugged Cas. "I'm so happy you're okay!" Then she planted a kiss on his lips before stepping back.

"Thank you Sarah, but I do not deserve your sentiment. I'm ashamed. I really overreached." Cas said.

Dean tore his gaze from Sarah to sarcastically say, "You think?"

"I'm gonna find some way to redeem myself to you."

"All right, well, one thing at a time. Come on. Let's get you out of here. Come on." Dean said trying to lead Cas toward the door.

"I mean it, Dean." Cas said.

"Okay. All right. But let's go find Sam, okay?" Dean said.

"You need to run now! I-I can't hold them back!" Cas yelled pushing Bobby and Dean away.

"Hold who back?" Dean asked, worried.

"They held on inside me. Dean, they're so strong."

"Who the hell -?"

"Leviathan! I can't fight them. Run!" Cas yelled doubling over.

"Cas!" Sarah yelled moving toward him.

Dean caught her arm and held her back before yelling at Bobby, "Go! Go get Sam! Go get Sam!"

"Too late." Leviathan Cas said almost happily with a weird smirk.

"Cas?" Dean said.

"Cas is - he's gone." Leviathan Cas gloated, tossing Dean into a wall and Bobby into a table. He then grabbed ahold of Sarah's neck. "He's dead. We run the show now. Ah. Oh, this is going to be so much fun." He then threw her to the side, on top of Dean.

"Bobby?" Dean called out, as he helped Sarah up a little. After a moment, Bobby sat up. "How many of you ass-clowns are in there? A hundred? More?" Dean asked Leviathan Cas. He just looked over at Dean as a black liquid started to drip from Leviathan Cas' arms. "Your vessel's gonna explode, ain't it? Wouldn't do anything too strenuous. In fact, I'd call it a day, head on home, huh?"

"We'll be back. For you." Leviathan Cas said in a forced voice.

"Well, this is a new one." Bobby stated after Leviathan Cas staggered out of the room.

"You can say that again." Sarah agreed.

They all got up and followed after Leviathan Cas. Dean managed to find Sam and they all followed Leviathan Cas to an enclosed water reservoir. He walked out into the water until he was submerged completely. A whirlpool appeared and black liquid radiated out from it, before disappearing.

"Aw, hell." Bobby swore.

"Damn it." Dean muttered.

"You said it. Those... whatever you call 'ems..." Bobby said.

"Leviathan." Sam interjected as he leaned into Sarah for support.

"Right. If they're in the pipes, they got themselves a highway to anywhere." Bobby stated.

"Awesome." Dean mumbled. He looked over at the edge of the water and saw something floating there. He picked it up and found it was Cas' trench coat. "Okay. So he's gone."

"Yeah. Rest in peace. If that's in the cards." Bobby said sadly.

"Dumb son of a bitch." Dean muttered.

"Well, he was friends with us, wasn't he? Can't get much dumber than that. Come on, those things will be coming up for air soon." Bobby said.


	9. Chapter 9

Thanks for all of the reviews!

Chapter 9

They left shortly after and went back to Bobby's house to regroup. After about 12 hours they sat down and confronted Sam about his hallucinations, only to find that he was seeing Lucifer himself. And that he wasn't sure what was real anymore.

After that talk, Dean went out to the garage to clear his head.

"Hey Dean." Sarah said walking up to him as he tinkered on the impala.

"What?" he said gruffly, showing he wasn't in the mood to talk.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing." She said holding up a beer as a peace offering. He looked at her then the beer, then went back to working on his impala. "Come on, Dean. I know you've got a lot on you right now, with Sam and Cas."

"I'm fine. Can I go back to fixing my car?" he said with attitude.

"Don't do this. Don't push me away because you've lost someone you love. We all loved Cas." Sarah said moving to place her hand on his arm.

"Leave me alone." He said moving a little so she wouldn't touch him.

"Talk to me." She said, again trying to touch his arm.

Dean spun around quickly, caught her arm and moved to push her against the impala. Sarah pushed back, throwing Dean off balance.

"No, we are not doing this. I will not be a punching bag for the Winchesters. You want a fight, find someone else." She said turning to leave.

"That's right, it's time for you to run away again, isn't?" Dean spat.

Sarah continued to walk back inside, slamming the door on her way in. Bobby looked up at her from the kitchen table and she growled, "That man is insufferable!" before storming upstairs.

The next day, Sarah worked on making dinner while Bobby and Sam researched a new case.

"Where is Dean, with my groceries? I swear he's doing this just to piss me off." Sarah mumbled as she slathered icing on the freshly cooled cake. A few minutes later Dean walked in with a bag of groceries.

"Hey there Gunga Din, buck up." Bobby said to Dean, as Sarah grabbed the bag from Dean.

Sam looked up and said, "So it looks like we got some bad news for a change. Stockville North Kansas, most of a high school swim team got mangled to death in their locker room."

"Cop talk on the wire's kind of garbled, saying it looks like some kind of wild animal attack. They're saying that whatever attacked them's about the size of a linebacker." Bobby explained.

"It's a lead, Dean." Sam stated.

"All right, but if you think you're going out on a hunt..." Dean said looking over at Sam.

"No, I know. I'm not. But you are. Look, Bobby's running the hub, I'm – I'm 5150'd, which leaves you and Sarah to follow this thing up." Sam explained. Sarah dropped the spoon she was holding.

"Sam, you're in the middle of a psychotic break." Dean tried reasoning.

"It's a couple hours' drive, Dean, and it could be a Leviathan thing." Sam said.

"Nah, if you think I'm leaving you here alone..." Dean tried.

"Hey. What am I, chopped brains on toast? I can eyeball the kid. Go. You two work off some of these nerves on something useful." Bobby instructed.

"Fine." Dean said turning to look over at Sarah.

"Fine." She rolled her eyes and put the can of beans back on the counter next to the cake.

Dean looked over at the cake and said, "What's that?"

"Cake. Geez, Dean, I knew you were slow sometimes but even I thought you'd know what a cake was." She said sarcastically.

"So no pie, then?" he asked ignoring her comment.

"No, pie is for good boys." She mumbled walking upstairs to get her gear.

Sarah and Dean investigated the massacre in the Stockville High school looker room and found some black ooze on one of the walls, determining that it was a Leviathan attack.

About a half hour away from returning to Bobby's, Sarah had had enough of the uncomfortable silence in the car.

"Seriously, what is wrong with you, Dean?" Sarah blurted out. Dean threw a glare at her. "You know, I lost someone I care about too. You're not the only one who cared about Cas. We all did."

"Yeah, well I saw how much you 'care' for Cas, alright." Dean grunted.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, come on, Sarah, you we're all over him!"

Realization crossed Sarah's face, "Are you upset that I kissed him?" Dean glared over at her. "It didn't mean anything, Dean. Cas and I had an unusual relationship. As you remember, I gave him his first kiss."

"Yeah, I remember. What else did you two do?"

"Dean. I kissed him like I would my brother. Like I would Sam."

"You hunted hell hounds with him. What else did you two do?" he asked jealously.

"Dean Winchester, are you jealous?" Sarah asked surprised. He remained quiet, staring at the road. "Dean, pull over." When he ignored her she said it more forcefully. "Dean, pull the damn car over now!"

He jerked the car off the road and stopped abruptly. "What?" he growled.

Sarah launched herself at him, claiming his lips in an earth shattering kiss. When she pulled away, she said, "There. Now that wasn't how I'd kiss my brother. That is all for you. Are we good now?"

"Huh?" Dean said still dumbfounded.

"Dean, can we just move past all this? For once we are working together, there are no angel's dictating our lives, and I don't have that fleeting feeling of needing to leave. And I promise not to leave you again. So can't we at least try to get along?" Sarah asked as she stared out the front window. When he didn't say anything, she looked back over at him only to have him launch himself at her this time.

He crushed her mouth with his as he pulled her as close as possible. Sarah whimpered as his hands roamed her body and pulled her to straddle his lap. His hands moved their way under her shirt and up to her breasts as he began kissing down her neck. Sarah leaned back a little and accidently bumped the car's horn.

Sarah pulled back surprised. Dean saw the slight hesitation on her face, "Sarah, we don't… if you don't want to…"

A small smile spread across her face, "Winchester, I am not missing any more chances with you." She then reclaimed his lips.

An hour later, Dean and Sarah pulled up to Bobby's house, each wearing a similar smirk.

"Sam?" Dean called out as they walked inside. "Sammy?"

"Hey, Sam are you here?" Sarah called up the stairs.

"Oh, crap." Dean muttered at the empty house. "Stay here and call me if he comes back!" he yelled as he ran out the door.

A little while later, Sarah was pacing the length of the living room when she heard movement outside. Rushing over to the porch she flung the door open and said, "Sam?"

Only it wasn't Sam. There on the porch was a man she had never seen before.

"Oh good. Someone's home." He said before punching her. Sarah hit the floor and blacked out.

She awoke a little while later to a room filled with smoke and fire. She quickly got up and searched for a way to escape. The fire blazed around her, making it difficult for her to see. She ran into the kitchen and managed to wet down a towel, then placed it over her nose. Then she looked around again to see if she could find a way out. The path to both of the doors were totally covered in fire. She ran over to one of the windows and tried to open it.

'Of course it won't open!' she thought as she grabbed a chair and threw it at the window making it smash. Sarah kicked out some of the pieces of glass that remained in the frame then crawled out, dropping on the broken glass.

She stood up, feeling the shards of glass dig more to her body. Biting back the pain she began to hobble away from the burning house toward the garage. Sarah made it to Bobby's truck before a dizzy feeling overwhelmed her, causing her to collapse on the ground.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Bobby? Sarah?" Sam called out as he searched the junkyard.

"Sam…" Sarah murmured, waking up.

"Sarah!" Dean yelled out. "Bobby!"

"Dean." Sarah said, waking up completely and looking around, trying to figure out what was going on. She slowly stood up and leaned on the truck for support. "Dean?" she croaked out, her throat dry from all the smoke. She tried to move away from the truck but fell back against it crying out in pain.

Looking down, she saw a large piece of glass sticking out of her left thigh. Sucking in a deep breath, she put pressure above the wound with one hand and pulled the glass out with the other. "Aah!" she cried out, breathing heavily. She took off her belt and placed it above the gushing wound. Sarah took another deep breath as she prepared to move again but fell back against the truck again and sliding back to the ground before everything went dark again.

"Sarah. Sarah wake up." Bobby said trying to rouse her.

"Bobby?" She said opening her eyes. "Oh Bobby! Thank God!"

"What happened?" he asked as he grabbed the med kit from inside the truck.

"I don't know. Sam disappeared. I stayed here while Dean went looking for him then this guy showed up, knocked me out then torched the house. I barely made it out alive." Sarah explained as Bobby started sewing up the gash on her leg. "Ah!... Hey, where's Dean and Sam?"

"I don't know. Let's get you patched up first, then we'll track them down." Bobby stated moving to check the other places she was bleeding from.

"Bobby, they could be in danger! We have to find them!" Sarah said trying to get up.

"You won't be able to help anyone if you lose any more blood." Bobby stated.

"There are Leviathans here?" Sarah asked as Bobby pulled into a parking spot at Sioux Falls General Hospital.

"Yep. Here, I'll go in and find the boys, you find us an ambulance to use." Bobby said before exiting the vehicle.

"Great." Sarah muttered as she slowly climbed out of the truck and slowly made her way over to the ambulance dock. She spotted an ambulance than waited for the paramedics to disappear inside the hospital before walking over and hotwiring it. 'Come on, come on.' She thought as she waited impatiently.

After several minutes she saw Bobby run outside, pushing Sam on a stretcher. Sarah ran outside to help get Sam into the back of the Ambulance.

"What's wrong with him, Bobby?" she asked worriedly, getting in the back with Sam.

"We'll find out later." Bobby said closing the doors then running to get into the driver's seat. "Balls. Come on, Dean. Come on, Dean!" Bobby muttered watching the side mirror.

Dean then got into the passenger seat of the ambulance. "Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!"

Bobby floored the gas, speeding away from the hospital.

Whitefish, Montana

Three Weeks Later

Sam sat at a table reading while Dean and Sarah were curled up on the couch. Dean was watching a Spanish soap opera on TV and Sarah was reading. Bobby walked inside.

"Dude… Ricardo." Dean said to Bobby.

"What happened?" Bobby asked, concerned.

"Suicidio." Dean answered. Sarah looked up at him, shaking her head.

"Adios, ese." Bobby answered as he looked at the TV screen. "Well, this ought to cheer you up." Bobby said tossing a set of keys at Dean.

"My baby! Now I just got to get this stupid thing off and I can drive again." Dean said gesturing at his full leg cast.

"Well until then, I'll just take these." Sarah said snatching the keys from him, and smiling wickedly.

"Over my dead body." Dean retorted moving to snatch them back.

"So how is it out there?" Sam asked, interrupting Sarah and Dean's playful banter.

"Weird with a side order of bloody. Talked to a few hunters. They're running into the same kind of thing that set up shop at that hospital." Bobby said walking over to the small kitchen and getting a cup of coffee, before sitting down at the table with Sam.

"Yeah, and don't forget tried to kill us at your place." Dean added.

"Well, consensus is they're, um, they're like shape shifters only a lot more into eating folk. And nothing can kill 'em."

"Good times. Anything else?" Dean asked.

"Yep. They bleed black goo." Bobby added.

"Like that stuff that came out of Cas – those things from Purgatory. Uh… Leviathan." Sam stated.

"Yep."

"Awesome." Sarah muttered.

"What about those chompers that you and the sheriff saw at the hospital? They still making spleenburgers?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, made some calls. That doctor never showed back up to work. Ditto a nurse and some administrator." Bobby explained.

"So they could be at any hospital in America." Dean stated.

"Yeah." Bobby admitted. Sarah got up to get another beer.

"What do you think, Sammy?...Sammy?... Sam." Dean said trying to get Sam's attention. Sarah put her fresh beer on the counter and walked over to Sam. "Hey, ground control! Sam!"

As soon as Sarah put her hand on Sam's shoulder he jumped and said, "Yeah. What? I'm – I'm right here."

"You okay?" Dean asked.

Sarah tried to move the hair away from Sam's face but he shook her off and said, "Yeah. I'm fine."

"Sam." She said.

"Sarah, I'm fine."

After a long pause, Sarah walked back over to the counter and grabbed her beer and took a long sip.

"Good. Every last bit of info I ever had burned down, so…" Bobby said.

"What about this place? Rufus leave anything? Did you check the basement?" Dean asked Bobby.

"C-rations and dust. I don't think he'd been here in years. So, I got to go round up my old library."

"I thought you said most of those books were one-of-a-kind." Sam said.

"Yeah. That's why I stashed copies all over the place." Bobby replied.

"Okay, good. Um... Hey, uh, two-legs. We're fresh out of grub. Want to make a run?" Dean asked Sam.

"Wha..?" Sarah started to say but got a look from Dean that quieted her.

"Sure. Yeah." Sam answered slowly.

Dean tossed the keys to Sam and said, "Be careful with her, would you? And, uh, Sam?"

"Yeah?" Sam asked at the door.

"Pie."

"Obviously." Sam retorted then walked outside.

"So?" Dean asked Bobby after Sam was gone.

"So what?" Bobby asked.

"Before you bail again – "Girl, Interrupted" over there. Any thoughts?" Dean asked.

"Looks to me like he's doing better." Bobby stated.

"Better? What do you mean, better? You just saw him!" Dean said, gesturing to the seat Sam had just vacated.

"Saw him check out once. That's progress." Bobby replied.

"You're kidding!"

"Look, seems to me that Sam's head ain't no different than your leg. People heal on a curve." Bobby stated.

"Not diff– Bobby, I get this thing off in five days, I'm golden. Sam's not a curve. He's a frickin' time bomb." Dean said exasperated.

"It ain't like he's keeping secrets. What you see is what you get. What's so nuts about calling an upswing?" Bobby asked.

"Because that's not how it works, Bobby, ever! All right? Especially not with Sam. The other shoe is gonna drop. It's just a matter of when." Dean replied.

"Okay. How 'bout we worry about today's problems? And today, we need intel. I'm going. You sit there and stew." Bobby said pointing to Dean then over to Sarah, "You make sure they don't do anything stupid. I'll check in. Look... you sitting here wringing your hands ain't gonna do nothing. Maybe he'll surprise you." Bobby said before leaving.

"What was all that?" Dean asked Sarah obviously pissed.

"Hey, you're the one that just let Sam drive out of here in your precious car." Sarah retorted as she walked back over to Dean.

"You're not helping." Dean stated.

"I know." Sarah sighed as she kneeled down next to Dean so she was on his level. "But I did notice that this is the first time we've been alone together in weeks." She said with a playful smirk.

"Well what do you know." Dean replied, his mood changing instantly before he pulled her in for a kiss.

Sarah was just getting out of the shower, when she heard Sam get back from getting some food. She finished getting dressed and walked out to hear Dean ask, "Think it's getting better?"

"Honestly? Uh… I don't know. I just know I'm managing it, so… So don't worry." Sam answered.

"Where's the pie?" Dean asked as Sarah walked into the room.

"I got cake. It's close enough, right?" Sam asked.

Sarah burst into laughter at the look on Dean's face.

Sometime later, while Dean was passed out on the couch with the TV still on and Sarah was curled up on the cot in the other room, Sam quietly snuck out.

The next morning, Sarah woke up to the sounds of Dean quietly snoring on the couch. Smirking at him, she changed into her running outfit and placed a soft kiss on his forehead before going outside to start her run.

About an hour later, Sarah returned to the cabin, to hear some sort of loud squealing sound.

"Dean? What are you doing?" She exclaimed, walking through the door and seeing Dean cutting his cast off.

Dean finished his cut and pulled his leg out of the cast, "Where have you been?" he growled.

"I went for a run. Same thing I do most mornings. You know that. What's going on? Where's Sam?" Sarah asked.

"Gone." Dean said bluntly.

"What?"

"He left a note. Says' he'll be back in a few days." Dean stated pointing to the note on the coffee table.

Sarah walked over and looked at it. "Maybe he needs a few days to himself."

"Not in my baby." Dean grunted. "We're leaving in 10."

"Dean. Are you sure it's a good idea to chase after him? You're leg's not completely healed yet and it's not good for you to be on it." Sarah said as she walked over to him and placed a hand on his cheek.

Dean shook her hand off. "Sarah, I don't know if I can say this clearer. I am leaving in 10 minutes. It's your choice if you come or not but I'm not going to let my cuckoo nest brother just go wandering off with Satan as his co-pilot." Dean growled moving away from her to start packing.

Sarah sighed, knowing that he was not going to change his mind. "Fine." She mumbled before grabbing her bag and taking a quick shower. Thank goodness she had been trained to take three minute showers in all of her years of hunting with the Winchesters.

They left eight minutes later and found a car to use, then went to the convenience store that Sam had visited the day before. The clerk wasn't much help but Dean found something useful in newspaper from the day before and travel to Bozeman, Montana.

They got there a couple hours later and started investigating a case about an ice pick killer. Dean believed that Sam had come to this town to investigate this case.

First stop was to the Coroner's office.

"Hi, I'm special agent Morrison and this is my partner, Special Agent Marley." Dean said to the coroner. "We're looking for a colleague of ours. Special Agent Tyler."

"Oh yes, Agent Tyler stopped by. He asked to see one of the bodies." The Coroner said moving to one of the refrigerated lockers and opening it. "This is the one he asked to see."

Dean looked over the body and asked, "Great, great. Uh, let me ask you, did he do anything to it?" Sarah looked over at him, shocked by his abruptness.

"No. He just asked a few questions about the other vics – missing pituitary glands and so forth."

Dean looked over at Sarah as realization dawned on them, "Son of a bitch." He muttered.

They called Bobby after leaving the Coroner's office to fill him in.

"Sam's hunting a Kitsune." Dean said gruffly to the speaker phone.

"Sam's chasin' a what?" Bobby asked.

"A Kitsune. It's pretty rare. Dad and I hunted one back in '98."

"Vaguely rings a bell."

"Yeah, didn't make our highlight reel." Dean stated.

"Well, least now we know he's working a job." Bobby added.

"Yeah, but why pull the Houdini act?" Dean asked. Sarah sat, trying to remember something about that case. She couldn't figure out why she had a nagging feeling that there was more to that case in '98.

"Not a clue." Bobby answered. "What are you gonna do when you catch up?"

"I got a few ideas." Dean said flatly before hanging up the phone. He threw a glance at Sarah, "You're awfully quiet." Sarah didn't respond. "Sarah." Dean grunted, tapping her arm.

Sarah snapped out of her thoughts, "Hmm? What? Did I miss something?"

"You alright?" Dean asked.

"Uh… yeah." She answered not very convincing.

"That sounded convincing." Dean said sarcastically. "What are you thinking about?"

Sarah sighed, "I'm going over that case in '98. There's something that's gnawing at me about it but I just can't put my finger on what."

Dean gave her a confused glance. "Were you with us on that one?"

"Yeah. I had been hunting with you all for two years by then but that was before John would let me help with anything other than research." Sarah said jogging Dean's memory. "I helped Sam with the research on this one, I just can't figure what I'm missing."

Dean and Sarah found the motel Sam was staying in, without too much trouble, and let themselves in to wait for him to return.

Dean paced impatiently as they waited for Sam.

"Dean, you're going to undo the last few weeks of healing if you don't get off your leg for a little bit."

"I'm fine." Dean grunted.

Sarah walked and stood in front of him, blocking his path. "Come on Dean, I know you're upset," She said placing her hand on his cheek, "Let's go and get something to eat. A nice greasy burger with lots of bacon… a big piece of pie… sounds good right?"

"I'm not leaving." Dean stated stepping back slightly, away from her hand.

Sighing for the hundredth time that day, Sarah lowered her hand to rest on his chest. "Fine. I'll be back." She grabbed a hold of his shirt and moved in, placing a kiss on his lips. He didn't kiss her back. Sarah released his shirt and grabbed her jacket off the bed. "Don't be too hard on Sam." She said before walking out the door.

'I should have known better.' Sarah thought as she walked back to the motel from a nearby diner. 'Should never try to get between the boys and their feelings for each other. Never ends well for me.'

Sarah was almost back to the room when she saw Sam at the door already. Before she could call out to him, he opened the door and then immediately flew backward.

"Sam!" Sarah yelled out. Dropping the bag she was carrying and rushing to him.

"Howdy, Sam." Dean said from the doorway of the motel room.

"Dammit Dean!" Sarah swore, kneeling down in front of Sam before helping him stand back up.

"New rule. You steal my baby, you get punched." Dean growled as Sam walked into the room. Sarah retrieved the disheveled bag of food and joined the boys. "The hell were you thinking, Sam, running off like that? I mean, for all I know, Satan could have been callin' your plays."

Sam walked over to the small refrigerator and pulled out a can of soda and held it to his head. "Dean, look, how many times do I have to tell you? I'm fine." Sarah sat down at the table quietly, not wanting to get in the middle of their argument.

"Oh, yeah, no, you're a poster boy for mental health. You have any idea the kind of horror shows I had going on in my head?" Dean asked.

"Dean, I left you a note. There was a job in town." Sam stated, sitting down on the table.

"A Kitsune. Yeah. Yeah. No, I know. And you ignore Bobby, Sarah and I's phone calls why, exactly?"

"Because I wanted to take care of it. And I did. I took care of it."

"Really?"

"Yes." Sam said flatly.

"Where's the body?" Dean interrogated.

"There is no body." Sam said after a pause.

"Why not?" Dean asked.

"Because I let her go. She's gone." Sam said. Sarah looked up at him in realization.

"You what? Why?" Dean snapped.

"Because she's Amy." Sarah interjected, causing Sam to look over at her surprised.

"Who?" Dean asked.

Sam preceded to explain the night in '98 when they had been tracking the Kitsune. He explained about hanging out with Amy at her house, then about her mother finding him and almost killing him. He hadn't realized until just before that point that Amy and her mother were the Kitsune's they had been hunting. Then Sam explained that before her mother could kill him, Amy saved him by killing her mother.

"You never told me that." Dean said.

"I never told anyone. I mean, can you imagine what Dad would have done?" Sam asked.

"If you didn't tell anyone… then how did you know, Sarah?" Dean asked looking over at Sarah.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Sam asked.

"Well, I was with you when you met her. And I covered, so you could go hang out with her, remember? I'm not stupid, you left to meet her so excited and then I got the call that you had killed the Kitsune. I saw how closed off you were afterward. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out some of what happened." Sarah explained.

"You didn't say anything." Sam stated.

"Neither did you."

"So you saw the article in the newspaper, and you just bolted." Dean butted in.

"It was my mess."

"And you call letting her go cleaning it up?"

"She killed her mom, Dean, to save me." Sam replied sternly.

"I hear you, Sam. I do. But look at her now. She's dropping bodies, man… Which means we got to drop her, no matter how many merit badges she racked up when she was a kid. I'm sorry, but it's that simple." Dean ranted.

"Nothing in our lives is simple." Sam muttered.

"Look, man, I get it, okay? You meet a girl, you feel that spark – there's nothing better." Dean said glancing over at Sarah. "But this freak?" Sam grabbed his jacket from the table and stood up angrily. "I didn't mean…"

"Yeah, you did. Look, I see the way you look at me, Dean, like I'm a grenade and you're waiting for me to go off." Sam growled.

"Sam…" Dean started to say.

"Sam, I'm sure Dean didn't…"

"I'm not going off. Look, I might be a freak, but that's not the same as dangerous." Sam said cutting Sarah off.

"I didn't say…" Dean said before Sam cut him off.

"It's okay. Say it. I've spent a lot of my life trying to be normal, but come on. I'm not normal. Look at all the crap I've done, look at me know. I'm a grade-A freak. But I'm managing it. And so is Amy."

"Is she? How?" Dean asked.

"She works at a damn funeral home so she doesn't have to kill anyone, Dean. She's figured out how to deal."

"Okay, well, then explain the bodies." Dean said.

"She's done. Her friggin' kid was dying, Dean. Put you or me in her position, we'd probably do the same thing. Look, you don't trust her. Fine. Trust me. Dean, please."

"Okay." Dean said simply.

"Seriously?" Sam asked.

"Of course, Sambo." Sarah interjected.

"Got to start sometime, right?" Dean stated.

They stayed the night there, then hit the road together the next day, toward a meet up with Bobby. After a day of driving they pulled over at a Motel in Spokane, Washington.

"Hey, why don't, uh- why don't you two check us in? I got to hit the candy store." Dean said, holding up his prescription bottle. "Doctor's orders." Sam got out of the car but Sarah stayed behind. "Sarah, you two."

She gave him a peculiar look. "You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?"

Dean huffed, "No."

"I know you don't trust Sam's judgment, right now, but you can trust mine. Amy may be a monster but I believe she's not a threat anymore." Sarah stated but after seeing the cold look in his eyes added, "You do trust me, right?"

"Of course, I do, Cakes." Dean said, moving in to kiss her, but she saw the look in his eyes. He didn't trust her either. She let him kiss her, briefly, then quickly got out of the car and joined Sam inside the motel lobby.

When Dean returned a while later, Sarah could tell he was hiding something, but he evaded her questioning looks and pretended to fall asleep on one of the beds.

Sighing, Sarah curled up on the couch, not wanting to push her luck with Dean by crawling into bed with him.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

A week later, they began investigating a few weird deaths in Dearborn, Michigan. The first one involved a man who was crushed to death in a locked apartment by a car. They searched the victim's apartment and found an AA token and a mysterious charge to a place called Jane's on his financial statements.

Sam tossed the token to Dean. "I'll go find out what Jane's is."

"I gave up AA for Lent." Dean stated.

"We're not Catholic." Sam retorted.

"Always with the details. AA give me the jeebs."

"Wow. Shocker." Sam said sarcastically.

"Shut up."

"Fine. I'll hit the meeting, you two go check out Jane." Sam reasoned.

"Sarah, you should go help Sam." Dean said before walking away, leaving Sarah and Sam staring at him confused.

Sarah and Sam found out that the victim was feeling overly guilty about something but everything became clear when Dean told them that the mysterious charges they'd found were for flower deliveries. Ones that the victim had delivered to a young girls grave. So after some research they salt and burned her bones.

Much later that night, the three of them returned to their motel room from the cemetery.

"Oh, another night at the office. Why don't you take the first shower?" Dean said to Sam. Then he threw a very tired and peculiar glance at Sarah. "Sarah and I can get the next one."

"Ha. In your dreams, Winchester." Sarah snorted tiredly, walking to the kitchenette and grabbing a beer.

"Listen to this." Sam said oblivious to the others comments. "A local man, Christopher Fisher, was ripped to shreds in a wild animal attack last night."

"It is a dangerous world out there." Dean said sitting on one of the beds, taking off his jacket and flopping down backwards.

Sam took a seat at the table with Sarah, "He was in the restroom of a diner."

Dean sat up again. "Yeah, that doesn't sound right."

"No duh, Sherlock." Sarah chided, before noticing the bags under his eyes. And the look he had was as if he had the whole world on his shoulders.

"Apparently, uh, none of the patrons saw anything. Guy calls 911, screaming about a dog, but the operator didn't hear anything, either." Sam explained as he started doing research on his computer, "Wow. Looks like this guy had a history with dogs."

"Meaning?" Dean asked.

"Five years ago, he was arrested for running a dog-fighting operation."

Dean got up from the bed and stood behind Sarah at the table, placing a hand on her chair. "Classy. All right. So, what? He causes so much misery that some Rottweiler goes Cujo on him from beyond the grave? Wait a second. Do… do dogs even have ghosts?"

"First I've heard of it." Sam stated. Sarah turned slightly and placed her hand on Deans.

"That sounds weird. Ghost dog?" Dean said removing his hand from hers and sitting down at the table next to Sam.

"No weirder than ghost car, you know?" Sam retorted.

"You know what does make sense? Vengeance on the guy that Michael Vick'd you. I mean, I'm no one to judge, but it sounds to me like that guy had it coming." Dean stated

"Maybe… But maybe not. So, he got busted, got probation, started volunteering at an animal shelter." Sam continued to research.

"Yeah, 'cause he had to." Dean said.

Sarah sighed at the boys droning on in business mode, "I'm going to get a shower." Before walking into the bathroom, completely ignored by the boys.

She locked herself in the bathroom and leaned against the door. Dean was giving her so many mixed signals that she was having trouble keeping up with them. Just a week ago he had been all over her and now he barely acknowledged her. Sighing, she stood up and turned on the shower.

After getting out of the shower, she walked back into the main room and found the boys already dressed in their FBI gear.

"Hurry up and get dressed. We're going to go check out the latest victim." Sam said walking toward the door.

"Um… could I have a minute to talk with Dean first?" Sarah asked them.

"Alright. Make it quick though. We need to get moving." Sam stated before walking outside.

"Sarah, I don't think this is really an appropriate time for this." Dean stated giving her a tired expression.

"Dean, are you okay?" she asked, ignoring his comment.

"I'm fine." He stated, shutting down.

"No you're not. This last week, you've been overly tired and more of a grump than normal. You barely talk to me and I have this unnerving feeling like there is something you're hiding from me." Sarah ranted. Dean's head snapped up. "Whatever it is, we can work it out together." Sarah asked walking over and placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

Dean stared down at her for a moment then shook her hand off and walked away slightly. "Don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about it? I thought we were partners. How can I not worry about something that appears to be tearing you up inside?"

"Come on. We need to get going." Dean said trying to change the subject.

"What? You can't expect me to just drop this." She said skeptically, then softened a little and moved closer to him. "Dean, you know you can trust me. I can help but you have to tell me what is going on."

"Trust you? Trust you to what? Run away again?" Dean spat, inwardly regretting it.

Sarah's eyes instantly filled with tears. It took all of her will to not let them fall. "I already told you that I would not do that to you again. I swore to you I wouldn't." Sarah said softly then a pained expression crossed her face, "Is that what you want me to do? Is that why you're acting like I'm nothing more than an annoyance? You've had your fill of me and now you're done?"

"Sarah…" Dean started to say.

"Just go Dean, Sam is waiting for you." Sarah said walking into the little kitchen, turning her back to Dean. After a moment, Dean quietly left the room, leaving her alone.

A couple hours later, Sam and Dean returned to the motel with a very scared, older man in tow.

"Hey." Sam said to Sarah as he walked in. Sarah looked up at him. "You okay?" he asked at the look of her red, puffy eyes.

"Peachy." She stated, throwing a glare at Dean.

"Uh, Sarah this is Warren. Warren this is our friend Sarah." Dean said as Sam retrieved a glass of water from the kitchen and handed it to Warren.

"So, Warren. Just, uh, take a minute. Tell us what's going on." Sam said.

"Look – you're good people, I can see that, but you can't do anything for me. No one can." Warren stated.

"Why not?" Sarah asked.

"Cause it's all impossible. You won't even believe me."

"Well, try us." Dean stated.

"I was just put on trial and sentenced to death." Warren explained.

"What'd you do?" Dean asked.

"Held up a liquor store. I killed the owner and his wife. I wasn't thinking. I was young."

"Young? When was this?" Dean asked, confused.

"1981."

"And they just put you on trial?" Sarah asked.

"No, no, I just got out of prison."

"Okay, you're making less sense the more you talk." Dean stated getting up.

Sam also got up and put an arm up to stop Dean. "No, it's okay. Just... go on."

"Did 30 years. I just got paroled. Not that you're ever free of that. I think about it every day." Warren admitted.

"So, then, what were you running from?" Sam asked.

"Well, I told you – the trial! All I know is, one minute I'm at the bar, and the next, I get jumped, wake up in a damn courtroom." Warren exclaimed.

"Courtroom? Like a... courtroom?" Dean asked.

"Well, no. There was a judge. Everything was crazy. It was in a barn." Warren rambled.

"At the apple farm?" Sam asked.

"Yeah."

"And this bar where you were grabbed?" Sam asked.

"Neal's Tavern."

"Same place Matthew Hammond went before his... car accident. Think maybe dog guy went there, too?" Sam said to Dean then turned back to Warren, "Is there anything else you can tell us?"

"You believe me? Who the hell are you?" Warren asked surprised.

"We kind of... specialize in crazy. So, uh, this judge – he got a name?" Sam asked.

"No. But there was these weird symbols."

"Symbols? Do you remember any of 'em? Can you draw them?" Sam asked handing Warren some paper and a pencil.

"Excuse us a sec." Dean said to Warren. Then looked at Sam, "Can I talk to you?"

They walked out into the hallway and Sarah could hear their semi hushed tones. It didn't take a genius to realize that they were arguing about something. Sam returned a few minutes later alone.

"What's going on? Where'd he go?" Warren asked scared.

"He, uh... Everything's fine. Look, let's go back to that farm." Sam said.

"Oh, no, no. No, I'm not going back."

"Warren, I need your help finding that barn." Sam stated.

"It's red – it stands out. I'm not going back. They're out there."

"Who?" Sarah asked.

"The people I killed. I just – no. No!"

"You're safer with us than not." Sam stated.

"No." Warren said firmly.

"Okay." Sam sighed and grabbed the piece of paper that Warren was holding. "Fine."

Sam pulled a chair over to the center of the room and signaled Sarah to place a circle of salt around it.

"I need you to stay inside this circle until we get back, okay? It'll protect you." Sam instructed.

"How?" Warren asked.

"Just trust me, okay? I'm trying to help." Sam stated before turning on the TV and tossing the remote to Warren. "Stay put." Sam then turned to Sarah, "You ready?"

"Yep."

Sam pulled out his phone and handed Sarah the paper that Warren had drawn on. "Bobby? Hey. Me. Listen – Sarah's sending you some symbols to look up." He said as they left the room.

Sarah started taking pictures of the paper with her phone as they walked down to the car.

After a little while of searching Sam and Sarah found the barn. As they started searching inside the barn, Bobby called back and explained that the symbols Warren had given them were Egyptian. They identified the God Osiris, who was basically the judge, jury and executioner.

"Lore says that he can see directly into the human heart. He weighs the guilt. If he finds more than a feather's worth – boom, you're done." Bobby explained.

"So what's he doing in Dearborn?" Sam asked leaning down so that Sarah could hear Bobby as well.

"Well, it seems like he just pops up and does his circuit-judge act and then disappears again. That's all I got so far." Bobby said then added, "You know what this means."

"Yeah. We've got to find him before he goes underground again." Sam said.

"No, you idjit. It means you three got to get the hell out of Dodge. This guy hones in on people who feel guilty. Who does that sound like to you?"

Sarah sucked in a breath. "Dean."

"Dammit." Sam muttered before hanging up on Bobby and rapidly dialing Dean.

On Sam's fourth attempt at reaching Dean, his phone was finally answered.

"Dean. About time, man. I…" Sam growled into the phone.

"Uh, hello?" a female voice said cutting him off. Sarah's head snapped over to look at the phone.

"Who is this?" Sam asked.

"Oh, well, I just – I picked this off the ground, where I've been standing for ten minutes listening to it ring. Is this Dean's phone?" she asked.

"Yeah." Sam answered slowly.

"Well... He was supposed to meet me here." She said tentatively.

Sam gave Sarah a worried look, "Where are you? I can be right there."

"Outside Neal's Tavern." She answered.

"I'll be right there." Sam said hanging up and rushing back to the car.

Sarah followed behind him slowly, trying to push her anger and heartache to the side and focus on the mission.

Sam tried to talk to Sarah on the way back into town but she refused to say anything.

They pulled up to the bar and saw a pretty blonde woman standing there.

"Hey, do you have Dean's phone?" Sam asked her. Sarah silently looked the woman up and down.

"Uh, here it is." Mia said handing Sam the phone. "Uh, well, I hope he's okay." She said nervously looking over at Sarah.

"Now, where exactly did you find this phone?" Sam asked not noticing the interaction between the girls.

"Uh... there." Mia said pointing to a spot on the sidewalk.

"Thanks." Sam said walking over to look at it. Sarah followed him, trying to keep her focus on finding Dean and not getting in a fight with the girl he was meeting up with.

"Red dirt." Sam mumbled, standing up and looking at Sarah. "Sarah, I'm going to head back to the barn, I need you to contact Bobby and see if there is any way to stop this. Dig up anything you can."

Sarah sat searching on her laptop in the motel room when Sam and Dean returned.

"Damn it, I told him." Sam said when he saw that Warren wasn't there.

"Osiris would have got to him one way or another. Guy's batting a thousand." Dean stated.

"There's still time. We can figure something out." Sam said, turning to Sarah. "You find anything?"

"Not yet. I'm waiting on a call from Bobby." Sarah said sounding depressed and not looking up at either of them. A moment later, her phone started to ring. She answered and turned the speaker phone on. "Bobby. What do you got?"

"A way to give Osiris a dirt nap." Bobby stated.

"Good. We need it." Sam said nodding to Dean, who was drinking a glass of whiskey and trying not to look at Sarah.

"Now, as near as I can figure, it ought to put him down for a couple of centuries, at least. It's worked a few times since the Pharaohs were big." Bobby explained.

"So it's temporary?" Sam asked.

"Long temporary. I say we slap that band-aid on and leave finding a cure to some hunter in a space suit. Now, you're gonna need to stab him with a ram's horn." Bobby stated.

"A ram's horn? Where am I gonna find a ram's horn in Dearborn?" Sam asked.

"No clue. But make sure it's a sharp piece. He ain't gonna let you stab him twice." Bobby stated.

"Yeah. Thanks." Sam said. Sarah hung up the phone before grabbing a beer from the fridge.

"Ram's horn. Ahh... okay." Sam said grabbing Sarah's computer and doing a search. "Huh. Apparently, uh, Jewish people blow through them once a year."

"Where you gonna find one this time of night?" Dean asked.

"Uh... synagogue?" Sam wondered.

"You're gonna steal from a temple? Well, that's a new low." Dean said sarcastically, drinking more whiskey.

"You're on death row, Dean. Quit joking around" Sam said before standing up and holding his hand out. "Here, keys. I'll be back."

"The dick's gonna sic Jo after me, Sam." Dean said sadly. Sarah finally looked up at him.

"You're a hunter, Dean. You know how to deal with ghosts." Sam said taking the keys from Dean.

"So, you suggesting I kill her again?" Dean asked.

"You didn't kill her, Dean. I'll hurry. Plus, Sarah will help keep you safe. Right Sarah?" Sam said before leaving, not waiting for an answer.

"Great." Sarah said standing up.

"Sarah…"

Sarah grabbed the salt and started to fix the circle of salt on the floor. "Just get in the circle."

Dean got into the circle, "Sarah, I'm sorry about earlier. But I need you to get out of here."

"Dean, I want to kill you myself right now. I will not let some ghost kill you first." She said angrily filling her shotgun.

Dean quickly crossed the room, grabbed the gun from her and threw her over his shoulder. He then tossed her into the bathroom and locked her inside by placing a chair under the handle. He then returned to the circle, ignoring Sarah's shouts and banging.

"You can come out now." He said softly.

"You know I'd never do this." Jo said appearing behind him. Sarah quit banging on the door and positioned herself to look through the old fashioned key hole.

"I know."

"I guess it's his thing. Some kind of twisted eye for an eye."

"It's okay." Dean replied.

"No, it's not. You deserve better." Jo stated.

"No, you did. You deserved better, Jo."

"Dean, my life was good. Really." Jo said trying to reassure him.

"He was right, you know – that dick judge, about me."

"No, he wasn't."

"You were a kid."

"Not true."

"You, Sam and Sarah. I just – you know, hunters are never kids. I never was. I didn't even stop to think about it." Dean admitted.

"It's not your fault. It wasn't on you."

"No, but I didn't want to do it alone. Who does? No, the right thing would have been to send your ass back home to your mom."

"Like to have seen you try. He was right about one thing."

"What, your massive crush on me?" Dean asked, smiling at her a little.

Jo smiled and said, "Shut up. You carry all kinds of crap you don't have to, Dean. It kinda gets clearer when you're dead."

"Well, in that case, you should be able to see that I am 90%... crap. I get rid of that, what then?" Dean asked.

"You really want to die not knowing? I bet Sarah would be able to tell you what other 10% is." Jo said lightly then something changed in her slightly. "Dean."

"Yeah."

"It's time." Jo said before appearing over at the stove and turning the gas on. Then she reappeared outside his salt circle. "Come on, Dean. I used to hunt ghosts. I know the tricks." She used her powers to shatter the windows causing a wind to blow in and break the salt circle. "He's making me do this."

"It's okay." Dean said solemnly, not making a move to stop her.

Jo reached into Dean's pocket and pulled out his lighter. But instead of lighting it, she reached up to stroke his cheek before dropping the lighter and vanishing.

Dean looked around, confused. "Jo?"

When it was clear that Jo was gone, Dean walked over to the bathroom and let Sarah out. As soon as the door was open, Sarah hit him in the face then pushed him out of her way.

"How dare you! I mean seriously! It wasn't enough that you were going to hook up with that bartender, which by the way I thought you had gotten passed sleeping with everything that has boobs, not that you've really let me know where I stand with you, especially lately, but then you lock me in the bathroom so that you can let Jo just kill you!" Sarah said finishing her rambling rant.

"I'm s…" Dean started to say, rubbing his jaw where she hit him.

"Don't you dare say that. Don't. You. Dare." She spat before running out of the room after saying, "I need some air."

Sarah ran from the building moving as fast as her legs would take her. She ran until her sides ached and her legs started cramping. Slowing down she ducked into an alley way, gasping for air from the exertion of running so hard and the sobs that finally escaped her control. After a few minutes, she was able to control her breathing and most of her emotions again. She slowly started to walk back to the motel and found Sam and Dean leaning against the impala.

"Sarah! Where have you been?" Sam yelled out when he spotted her. Dean looked up in shock that she had come back.

"I needed to stretch my legs." She muttered moving passed them. "You two get my bags?"

"Yeah. Get in, we need to go." Sam stated.

"Let's go." She mumbled before getting into the car.

Sam looked at Dean pointedly before getting in the impala himself.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

After leaving Michigan, they traveled around for a few days trying to find a new case, everyone avoiding the issues that had surfaced from Dean's trial. He avoided everything, drank more than usual and would not look at Sarah.

Sarah was woken up one morning by someone throwing something onto her face. Opening her eyes quickly, she saw Sam looming over her.

"Sam? Is something wrong?" she asked immediately concerned.

He gave her a smirk, "You wanna go for a run?"

"Uh… Sure" Sarah said, giving him an odd look. "I'll go get changed."

She got up and changed into her running shorts, sports bra, t-shirt and running shoes before joining Sam at the door. She threw a glance at Dean's sleeping form then followed Sam outside.

They ran for a while before Sarah slowed her pace, stopping at a nearby park bench, "Alright, Sam, spit it out." Sarah said trying to catch her breath. He gave her a look, "Come on, Sambo. I can tell when you've got something on your mind."

"Well… uh…"

"What is it Sam? Is it about your imaginary friend?" Sarah asked trying to lighten the tension she saw in him.

He smirked a little. "No. Everything's fine there." Then he asked, his smirk fading away, "Do you know what is going on with Dean?"

Sarah looked away, "Just that he's keeping a secret. One that is eating away at him."

Sam sighed. "So he hasn't talked to you."

"When was he supposed to talk to me? When he was on trial? When Jo's ghost was trying to kill him? How about when he was trying to hook up with that bartender?" Sarah asked instantly furious. "Now why do you think he would tell me anything?"

"Sarah… you know he…"

"He what? Loves me? Is that what you were going to say? Because I think he's only in love with the ideal of me. Of what we could have." Sarah ranted before sitting down on the bench, deflated. "I just wish he was honest with me."

"You and me both." Sam said sitting next to her. "But you're wrong. He loves you. It's just… whatever he's hiding is messing with him. Making him close down."

"Well maybe he'll open up to one of his floozies." She said getting up and beginning to run again.

It didn't take long for Sam to catch up with her but knew better than to try and talk with her again. They returned to the motel room and found Dean sitting in front of Sam's laptop with a glass of whiskey.

"Somebody better be chasing you two." Dean said gruffly.

"It's good for you." Sam stated.

"No. No, it's not good for you. Look at you. You're, you're a mess, and you stink. Well, while you were out being Lance Armstrong..." Dean complained.

Sam grabbed a sports drink out of the refrigerator and tossed it to Sarah before grabbing one for himself. "That would be biking."

"...I was working. You ever heard of a town called Prosperity, Indiana?" Dean asked, throwing a glance over at Sarah as she pulled her shirt off, revealing her sports bra and began to whip the sweat from her face.

"Has anybody?" Sam asked bringing Dean back to the conversation.

"Uh… um… Two of their fine citizens died over the past two weeks. Uh, this one chick, she, uh, roasted underneath one of those beehive hair dryers at the hair salon..." Dean explained turning the laptop so Sam and Sarah could see. "...and this other guy boiled in a hot tub."

"You don't see a lot of that." Sam said intrigued.

"No, you don't." Dean chided.

"It's worth checking out." Sam added.

"Yeah." Dean agreed then threw another look at Sarah. "What do you think princess?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know what I think." She muttered before swiping his glass of whiskey and heading to the bathroom.

Later that afternoon in Prosperity, Indiana…

"Alright, Sam you go talk with the vic's sister, Sarah, go check out the hot tub and I will go check out the Salon." Dean instructed after they'd all changed into their FBI clothes.

"Fine." Sarah sighed walking away from them.

Sarah walked the mile and a half to the first victim's house and started looking around the outdoor hot tub. She searched all over the patio and went over the police reports for about an hour before deciding that there was nothing to be found. She was threw one last glance at the hot tub when she noticed a slight glint of something shiny in between two foot boards.

She knelt down and picked it up, finding it to be a small unusual looking coin.

Sarah walked back to the motel after getting a call from Sam about another murder, that he and Dean were on their way to check out. Once there she started to research the coin she found.

After a little while Sam called her again and told her to meet them at Stark Foundation building in the center of town.

"Man, this Stark guy is really plugged in, huh?" Sam stated, looking at a bust of Don Stark.

"More like a complex." Sarah said rolling her eyes at the bust.

"So, all the players in this - this shopping-center project have either fried, boiled, or kebabbed. He could be next." Dean said taking out his flask and unscrewing the lid.

"Really? From a freaking flask? What are you, bad Santa? On the job?" Sam asked surprised.

"We're always on the job." Dean mumbled before taking a drink. Sam's phone began to beep.

"Real mature, Dean." Sarah muttered taking the flask from him.

"All right. Bobby e-mailed back. I sent him a few pics of those coins you two found. He says the writing is Romanian Cyrillic, used only in the mid-15th to the 19th century. Apparently, it's an antique Wallachian ducat." Sam said reading from his phone.

"So, we're looking for an old Romanian?" Dean asked trying to grab his flask back from Sarah.

"You know, is it just me, or is this really weird?" Sam asked looking at the dead plants around the base of the Don Stark bust.

"Huh. I've seen this once before, where t-the plants are all dead in one spot." Dean stated giving up on the flask for the moment.

"Where?" Sam asked.

"A bus bench with Wendy Goodson's picture on it. I mean, I'm no expert, but I don't think plants are supposed to act like this." Dean explained.

They then went to interview Don Stark. The interview wasn't turning up anything useful until Sam returned from scoping the place out.

"... but in the end, everyone here respects and admires me." Don stated.

"Including your wife?" Sam asked causing everyone to look at him. "Sorry. It's just, we heard the two of you were splitting up, right?"

"Yeah, that's, uh - that's what we heard." Dean covered.

"Yeah, Maggie and I are going through a tough time. It's a separation - temporary. Sometimes, you know, you grow apart. It's no one's fault." Don explained.

"And how would you describe the, uh - the issues between you and your wife?" Sam asked.

"It's just one of those marital misunderstandings, you know." Don stated looking at Dean and Sarah.

"No, I'm sorry. I don't." Sarah stated, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"Oh, sorry. You two just seemed like a couple." Don apologized.

"Well we're not, so why don't you explain those other misunderstandings." Sarah said pointedly, obviously pissed. Dean gave her a pained look.

"It's one of those vague, hard-to-define passages."

"She caught you cheating, huh? I couldn't help but notice, uh, things were kind of cordial between you and your assistant. Pretty good with the ladies there, Mr. Stark? It's a blessing and a curse, isn't it?" Dean asked.

"Guys, I'm a people person, and I admire dynamic, confident women." Don stated, throwing a smile to Sarah.

" 'Admire'?" Sam questioned.

"Okay, look - it's true I had a recent... little thing with a business associate, but that's all it was." Don admitted.

"A "thing"?" Dean and Sarah asked at the same time.

"Yeah."

"Like a - like a shoe or a golf club." Sam retorted.

"Right. Like a waffle iron." Dean added.

"Yeah." Sam agreed.

"You should know." Sarah mumbled only loud enough for Dean to hear. Then added louder, "Yeah. No, see, Don, uh, wives generally think of an affair as something more than a thing."

"Yes, and when Maggie found out about it, she needed some time off, temporarily." Don said.

"Hmm. Now, if we were to guess that the, uh, uh, business associate was Wendy Goodson, would we win the weekend trip to Maui?" Dean asked.

"No, her death had nothing to do with the affair. It was over long before her accident." Don said.

"If it was an accident." Dean added.

"You're not implying that Maggie was behind this." Don retorted.

"No, we're not implying anything. We're just saying... you should be careful. And take her to dinner and apologize." Sam advised.

"Yeah, and, uh, grovel. Wouldn't hurt." Dean said, avoiding looking at Sarah before saying goodbye and walking outside.

"Found a bunch of hex junk in their stuff - clearly her thing. And the empty closet didn't seem like she was coming back anytime soon." Sam explained once they were outside.

"So, Don admires Wendy, biblically, Wendy dies weird, and the scorned wife is into the dark stuff." Dean surmised.

"While Don's just in the dark." Sam added.

"Hmm. It's kind of like "Bewitched." You know, Don's Darrin, doesn't even know it. A lot of laughs until, uh, you cheat on your wife." Dean joked.

"A "Bewitched" reference. Really?" Sam asked.

"Dude, Nicole Kidman was in the remake. Redhead. Hello!" Dean explained.

"Oh please, Dean. I made you watch that movie and you bitched the whole time." Sarah chided.

"Look at all these dead plants." Sam interjected, stopping Dean's retort.

"Huh. It's kind of like the real-estate lady's place and Don's statue thing." Dean said.

"You know, if she's strong enough, just being pissed off is enough to send some pretty bad vibes their way." Sam replied.

"Literally kill off everything around her just by pms-ing at it. Eeh. That's not creepy at all." Dean said as he pulled out his cellphone and placed a call. "Bobby, hey, it's Dean. Listen… Winchester. Yeah, very funny. So, we need our kind of Terminix… A witch… Yeah, we're headed over to her place to get you some more specifics, so if you could just, uh - y- thank y…" Dean closed his phone after Bobby hung up on him. "He's on it."

They get in the Impala and drive away.

After searching Maggie Starks house, they saved Jenny, Don's assistant, from Maggie's wrath in the form of tiny hearts in her freshly baked cupcakes.

Then they watched as Don went to talk with Maggie only to leave a few minutes later and watch as she used her powers to destroy his bust.

"Now she's just getting nasty. Killing the girlfriend is one thing, but his commemorative bust? That's got to hurt." Dean observed.

"She'll take the whole town out, Dean. She don't care who gets in the way." Sam added as Dean's phone began to ring.

"Hey, Bobby. What do you got?" Dean asked into the phone, "Yeah?... You think it'll take her out?... All right… No, I don't need to write it down. I'll remember. Go ahead… Mm-hmm… The - wait. Hang on. Hang on." Dean quickly gestured to Sam and Sarah to give him a pen and paper. "Yeah?... Wait. Wa- ho- ho- hold on. Hold on. Hold on…" Sam handed him an old diner menu and a pen. "Okay, what was the, uh - what was that last one?... Right… Uh-huh… I'll remember. It's fine."

When he had hung up from Bobby, they divided the list and agreed to meet back at the motel.

Sarah walked in to the motel room with Sam to find Dean sitting at the table about to start eating a pie.

"Dude. Pie." Dean said excitedly. Sarah walked over and dropped a plastic bag down next to the pie. "Ugh. That is…"

"Chicken feet, just like the recipe calls for. Butcher's fridge is down." Sarah said with a slight grimace before moving across the room.

"I can smell that." Dean said pushing the pie away.

"Uh, says the power's been wonky and that he's lost so much product, he probably won't make rent. Ditto every shop on the block - nothing but burst pipes and blackouts." Sam said.

"Huh." Dean muttered.

"He says it's like all of a sudden, the town ran out of luck." Sam added.

"So, coincidence, right?" Dean asked, picking up the bag of chicken feet and walking over to Sam.

"Uh...yeah. We're past the point of dead flowers." Sam stated.

"What can I say? I guess the witch is pissed. All right, let's, uh - we better get a move on here. Why don't you just..." Dean said suggesting Sam take the bag. "C-can you take the feet?"

Sam held out a bowl and Dean dropped the bag into it. "Ugh." Sam choked out from the smell.

"You two are such pansies some times." Sarah said taking the bowl from Sam and hiding the almost overwhelming urge to hurl. "We should but these in the fridge."

Sam took the bowl back, "We don't have time for that, Sarah."

"Fine, but don't blame me if it doesn't work." She said walking outside and taking a deep breath of fresh air.

After Sam made the concoction that went with the spell to stop witches, they started on their way to find Maggie Stark. First they went to where her charity auction was to be held but found that the police were already there. So after Sam and Dean investigated why the police were there, they went to Don  
Stark's house and found Don and Maggie arguing.

"Shove it. We are so having it out right now." Maggie yelled at Don before the door burst open and Sam, Dean and Sarah run in.

"Furor divina virtute in infernum eam detrude!" Dean yelled as Sam lit a match and dropped it into the bowl making white smoke rise but nothing happened.

"Let me guess - chicken feet? Not chilled?" Maggie asked.

"I told you!" Sarah muttered at the boys.

"For obvious reasons, you won't be leaving this room." Don said putting down his glass and moving to stand beside Maggie. "Well, you will be leaving - just not alive. Maggie?"

They raise their hands then start to say in unison, "Puterea magiei negre..."

"Okay, plan B." Sam states.

"What's plan B?" Dean asked.

"Talking." Sam said, getting confused looks from both Sarah and Dean.

"...La suferinta..." Don and Maggie continued to chant.

"Now? Really?" Dean asked.

"This is obviously a domestic dispute. So if you can't kill them, counsel them." Sam suggested.

"Yeah. You know what? Not my area!" Dean growled.

"You got that right." Sarah mumbled.

"Supune-te ordinelor mele …" they continued to chant.

"Okay, okay, okay. Uh..." Dean yelled out interrupting the witches and placed the bowl on a nearby chair. "Look - obviously, you two are capable of wiping each other out, right? But you haven't, huh? Which means that you two - you still value whatever it is you got. A-and you want keep that dance going. Maybe it's - maybe it's punishment. Maybe it's - it's sick, messed-up, erotic, kinky, clamps and feathers kind of love."

"Okay, okay, t-that's - that's going way too deep, there, cowboy. Look, what he's trying to say is that - is that you two - whatever it is you have, you're bonded." Sam said cutting Dean off.

"Are you out of your mind? He cheated on me, humiliated me." Maggie yelled.

"We're not trying to say what Don did was right. When a relationship cracks, usually both parties have a hand in it." Sam tried reasoning.

"Indeed." Don said smugly.

"You're defending him?" Maggie growled angrily as she reached her arm out toward Sam, using her powers to push him to the ground painfully.

"Ugh!" Sam yelled out. Sarah rushed to him.

"Whoa! Okay, okay! Okay, look - n-nobody can defend Don. Right? Uh, totally. But, uh, we get that you feel betrayed...because you were." Dean tried.

"Don't suck up to her." Don snapped sending Dean flying backwards into a glass door.

"I was betrayed by all of them. Carl introduced you to Wendy. Dewey covered for you. Wendy did you!" Maggie yelled.

"Okay, okay, look –" Sam said rising to his feet. "I got to say I-I don't think Don was lying when he said he regrets the whole Wendy thing."

"Sam!" Sarah scolded, knowing what a stupid thing that was to say.

" 'Thing'? Sit down." Maggie growled, forcing Sam and Sarah to the ground again.

"Aagh! Ugh! Yeah, affair - that's right, terrible." Sam moaned, rolling on the floor in pain.

"I think the only thing he regrets is getting caught." Maggie retorted.

"Wendy was nothing to me. It was over as soon as it started." Don admitted.

"She was part of a pattern, okay? I've had 800 years of this. Do not make me bring up the Renaissance!"

"Oh! Oh! You're one to talk. 1492 ring any bells?" Don growled.

"The man was about to set sail! He could possibly fall off of the edge of the earth. I took pity. So, what's your excuse?"

"I told you - nothing happened with the Medici chick! You've always been insanely jealous."

"Oh, I wonder why! Jenny. Wendy."

"Jenny? Nothing happened with Jenny. She's just my assistant." Don explained.

"That's true. She, uh - she told us - just an assistant." Dean said getting to his feet. Maggie flung her arm out toward Dean and he fell backward again. "Whoa!"

"Is that true?" Maggie asked.

"Yes, I swear it, babe. I would never. I made a mistake. I'm sorry, Maggie." Don apologized.

"See? See? Guys, guys... You're talking." Sam said, standing up again. Dean and Sarah also stand up again. "All these years, you – you - you buried your anger and your disappointment till it tore you apart. All you needed to do was talk."

"And I would have missed the nuking that my melon just took. Well, who wants that?" Dean asked sarcastically. Maggie flung her arm out again, slamming Dean into the doorway and Don raised his arm surrounding Dean's head with a swarm of bees.

"Nice touch." Maggie said to Don.

"Thank you." Don said. "He's right. I couldn't kill you. All I ever wanted is you, Mags. I've been crushing on you since forever. You're the woman that I want to never grow old with."

"I could never murder you either, Don. It's crazy... But true." Maggie stated before kissing Don.

"Somebody want to call these things off? Ex- excuse me!" Dean groaned, still surrounded by bees.

"Oh please, leave them there. At least until he learns to stop hurting the people who love him." Sarah said surprising everyone before she walked out.

They returned to the motel room in silence, all of them exhausted from the fight. Dean took a drink from his flask, making Sam and Sarah look at him.

"Oh, give me a break." Dean complained. Sarah rolled her eyes.

"I didn't say anything." Sam stated.

"It's been a long day." Dean said.

"And it's not over yet." Someone said from behind them. All three of them spun around to look at the intruder, Dean pulled out his gun. "Hi, Sam. Hi, Dean. Sarah."

"Do we know you?" Sam asked.

"Well, I definitely know you. You're the dead guys. Well, you will be in a minute. And she will be desert." The intruder said smugly. Dean shot at him causing black liquid to run from his body before the bullet popped out. "Sorry. You're a bit outmatched."

The intruder punched Dean, sending him sprawling to the floor, and grabbed Sam by the throat before back handing Sarah into the wall. He then fell to the floor himself, electrocuted. Don Stark entered from the open doorway.

"Don. Well, thank you. We owe you." Dean said as they all stood up.

"Good God. What is that thing?" Don asked.

"I guess we should be figuring that out." Sam said puzzled.

"It is on our to-do list." Dean added helping Sarah to her feet.

"You know, find a bottomless pit and drop it in. Spell only lasts for a few days." Don advised before he walked over to the beds and started feeling around under one of the mattresses.

"Uh, what are you even doing here?" Sam asked.

"Apparently, saving your lives - twice." Don said before holding up a coin. "Got it."

"Maggie? Seriously?" Sam asked as Don moved to the other mattress.

"She was gonna kill us? We just saved your damn marriage." Dean stated.

"Yeah, but to be fair, you also tried to kill her. Although she was going to let little missy over there live, at least for now." Don said pointing to Sarah, who was holding a cold beer to her cheek.

"Why was she going to let me live?" Sarah asked confused.

"I think she sensed a kindred spirit. Another woman scorned, blah blah. You know how she is when she gets a bug up her ass. Got to love her, right? Right. Bottomless pit. Ciao!" Don stark said before leaning toward Dean and whispering, "Whatever you did to mess up with your girl, I would fix it, soon. Girls like her don't come along very often. Trust me I know. And in your words, grovel." Then he left closing the door behind him.

"Yeah, he's ready for transport. I just hope you got someplace you can put him, Bobby." Dean said into his phone. "All right." He hung up and placed a bag into the trunk of the impala. "We should hit the road. You two ready?" Dean asked, walking over to the driver's door.

"Hey, were you, um, were you listening to the Starks tonight?" Sam asked as he let Sarah into the front seat, since the monster was taking up the whole backseat.

"Uh, a little, when I wasn't getting slammed into a wall or stung by bees."

"You notice how they, uh, you know, how they - how they opened up, got everything off their chest?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Kudos on selling them that crap."

"It wasn't crap, Dean. It worked."

"Sam, I am so very, very, very, very...very, very tired …" Dean said trying to avoid this conversation.

"Dean, like it or not, the stuff you don't talk about doesn't just go away. It builds up, like whatever's eating at you right now." Sam said pointedly.

"There's always something eating at me. That's who I am. Something happens, I feel responsible, all right? The Lindbergh baby - that's on me. Unemployment - my bad." Dean retorted.

"That's not what I'm talking about."

"Well, then what the hell are you talking about?" Dean asked annoyed.

"I'm talking about whatever you're not telling me about. Look, Dean, it's fine. You can unload. That's kind of what I'm here for." Sam said reassuringly. Dean just stared blankly at him. "I mean... we're good, right?"

"We're good." Dean said gruffly.

"You and Sarah good?" Sam asked testing Dean's patience.

"I said we're good. All of us. Can we go now?" Dean asked before getting into the car. Sam stood there for a moment before getting into the car himself, the three of them squeezed into the front seat together.

"Oh this is going to be a fun ride." Sarah said sarcastically as Dean started to drive.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

They got back to Rufus' cabin with the Leviathan still incapacitated in the backseat and managed to get him chained down in the basement.

"You good with finding a way to kill this thing, Bobby or do you want some help?" Sarah asked as Dean and Sam finished chaining the Leviathan down.

Bobby gave her a look. "Aren't you just so kind, princess. I think I'll manage."

Sarah rolled her eyes and walked back upstairs, a small smile spreading on her face. "Fine. I'm gonna get some shut eye. Wake me if you all find out anything." She said from the top of the stairs. She dropped onto one of the cots and tried to get some sleep.

About an hour later, Sarah was still tossing and turning on the cot when she heard the distinct sound of a bottle opening. Getting up she saw Dean sitting at the table drinking and staring at his computer.

"I thought you were trying to get some beauty sleep." Dean said, not looking up at her as she approached him.

"Couldn't sleep." Sarah said, swiping his beer and taking a long swig.

"Do you always have to take my drinks? Seriously, the fridge is two feet behind you." Dean snapped. Sarah narrowed her eyes at him and spit some of the beer back into the bottle before slamming it down in front of him and walking toward the door. "Oh, mature. Real mature."

"You're one to talk." Sarah retorted walking outside.

She made it to the edge of the porch before she was roughly pulled back and pushed up against a nearby post.

"You got something you want to say?" Dean asked roughly, the smell of alcohol heavy on his breath.

"Nothing that you want to hear." She said back, staring up at him.

He stared down at her intently, trying to decide what to say. She stared up at him, her body reacting to him being so close to her. Her breathing steadily getting heavier and heavier.

Before she knew it, Dean had closed the small gap between them, covering her lips in a very determined kiss. She leaned into him for a moment, wanting desperately to forget everything and just be in the moment with him. But unfortunately her brain kicked in and she pushed him away.

"No." She said roughly as she tried to catch her breath.

"Come on, Sarah…" Dean started to say, as he tried to move in again.

"Dammit Dean! I said no!" She said more forcefully, pushing against him harder. "You can't just flip a switch and expect me to just jump. Especially after Dearborn." Dean's brow furrowed in confusion and Sarah narrowed her eyes at him. "You know, where you almost let Jo kill you. Where you almost hooked up with that bartender."

Realization dawned on him, "Look Sarah, I'm sorry about that…"

"I'm not looking for an apology." Sarah said interrupting him. "You're free to do whatever you want, it's not like we have fully decided what we are to each other. Besides, knowing you it will only be a matter of time before you do it again."

"What do you want from me? Why stay with me if I'm so bad?" he growled.

"I stay because I love you, Dean. No matter what crap you do or what mess you get mix up in, I will always love you." She said, her eyes filling with tears. "All I want from you is the truth. Stop lying to me and just figure out what you want. Figure out what if you want me. If you don't… then…" She was about to say more when her phone began to ring. Sighing she pulled it out of her pocket and answered it. "Hello?"

"Sarah?" a very scared voice asked.

"Kate? What's wrong?" Sarah asked turning away from Dean.

"Sarah! Thank God I got you! I need help!" Kate cried into the phone.

"Help? Help with what?" Sarah asked concerned.

"My boyfriend. He's gone crazy. He tried to kill me! I got away but I'm afraid that he's gonna find me!"

"Did you call the police?" Sarah asked.

"Yes but they can't seem to find him. Please Sarah, can you help me? You're the only one I know who might be able to keep me safe." She begged.

"Kate…"

"Sarah please!" she cried out desperately.

"Alright, you still in Fredonia?"

"Yes. Please hurry!"

Sarah hung up and turned to look at a curious Dean. "Who was that?"

"My friend, Kate."

"Your friend from Fredonia? Where is that?"

"Arizona." She said heading back inside and grabbing her bag.

"So you're just leaving. " Dean asked following her back in.

"What's going on?" Sam asked joining them from the basement.

"Sarah's taking off again." Dean snapped.

"What?" Sam exclaimed confused.

"I'm not leaving for good." Sarah sighed. "An old friend needs my help. I'll be back in a few days, promise."

"Who is this friend? You need help?" Sam asked.

"No, I can handle this one. My friend just has lousy taste in men." Sarah stated. "Something I have some experience in." she added.

"You sure? If this guy is causing problems, we can help." Sam persisted, ignoring her last comment.

"I'm sure." Sarah said moving to give Sam a hug. "Keep your brother out of trouble until I'm back okay?"

Sam smirked. "I don't think that's possible."

Sarah smiled back and grabbed her bag. "Tell Bobby I'm borrowing his car." She walked toward the door and stopped in front of Dean, giving him a serious look. "We'll finish our talk when I get back. At least this will give you a chance to figure out what you want."

"Yeah if you come back." Dean mumbled once she was out the door.

Sarah drove all night and made it to Fredonia by mid-morning. Once in the town she pulled out her phone to call Kate.

"Hello?" Kate said shakily answering the phone.

"Kate. I'm here. Where are you?"

"Your old place." Kate said.

"I'll be right there. Don't move." Sarah said hanging up the phone and turning toward the motel she used to stay at.

Just as she was pulling into the parking lot when her phone started ringing.

"Sorry Dean… can't talk now." She mumbled as she silenced her phone and got out of the car. She walked up to the door to her old motel room and knocked, "Kate? Kate, it's me Sarah. Let me in."

She was about to start knocking again when her phone started buzzing again. This time it was Sam. "Sam, I can't talk. I'll call you back when I can." She said hanging up on him. She tried the door knob and found that it was unlocked. She slowly opened the door, "Kate?"

Walking in, warning bells started to go off when she saw the blood stains on the walls.

"Good. You're here." A voice said from behind her. Sarah spun around with her gun raised to see Edgar the Leviathan standing in the doorway. "I was getting bored."

"Wha… Edgar!" Sarah growled, trying to figure out how to escape.

Edgar quickly grabbed her gun and tossed her across the room, making her slam against the wall.

"It looks like my lucky day, doesn't it. First I get a really tasty plump blonde and now dessert." Edgar said smugly.

When he walked close enough to her, she swept her leg enough to knock him to the floor and quickly jumped up, trying to run back towards the door again. He grabbed her leg as she ran by, causing her to fall flat on her face.

"Nice try, but it'll take a heck of a lot more to take me down." Edgar stated before adding, "You on the other hand, it only takes a little pressure…" he squeezed her leg until there was a snap, causing Sarah to cry out in pain, "and you are helpless to escape. Humans." He got up and walked away a little, pulling out his cell phone.

"Sir, I have the girl. No, she was no problem. What would you like me to do with her?" Edgar asked into his phone. Sarah tried to control her sobs as she slowly worked her phone out of her jacket pocket. "Yes sir, I'll put her on ice for you." She tried to discreetly call Dean but Edgar noticed her movement and walked over to her before grabbing her arm and taking the phone from her. "Now, now, none of that." He said crushing the phone into pieces before twisting her arm enough to make it snap.

Sarah cried out again from the overwhelming pain coursing through her body before he back handed her across the face, knocking her out completely.

Sarah woke up to very cold water being splashed into her face. She sucked in a breath and pulled her injured arm closer as she looked at the woman who'd woken her up.

"Good. You're awake." An overly positive sounding man said from across the room.

Fixing her gaze on him she asked, "Who the hell are you? Where the hell am I?"

"My such a mouth on you. I'd like to just eat it right off your face." He said cheerfully. "I can definitely see how much of an influence the Winchesters have been on you."

"Screw you! Now who the hell are you?" Sarah spat.

"You will watch your tongue, human." Edgar said moving closer as if to hit her again.

"Edgar, that's enough. Don't want to kill her just yet. She might still prove to be useful." The man said moving closer to her.

"So I take it you're the Leviathan in charge?" Sarah asked suddenly catching on that she was in the room with three leviathans and she was unarmed and injured.

"The one and only." He said with a big, perfect smile. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Richard Roman but you can call me Dick. This is my assistant, Susan and the one that ruffed you up a little is Edgar but I'm sure you remember him. Now, Susan, why don't you take Sarah to her new room and fetch the good doctor to come and look at those injuries of hers."

Susan grabbed Sarah by her injured arm and pulled her to her feet. Pain shot through Sarah's body, making her sway on her feet as Susan started to pull her toward the door. Once they were outside the office and slowly walking down the hall, Sarah used all the strength she could muster and pushed Susan into the wall. She wrestled her injured arm from the other woman and punched her with her good arm. Sarah then took the opportunity to try and run away, dragging her broken leg behind her.

"Nice try, little mouse." Susan said with a smirk.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Several months later…

**_Rufus' Cabin_**

After arriving at Rufus' Cabin, Dean walked Kevin the profit down to the basement to work on deciphering the tablet they'd stolen from Dick Roman. Sam and Castiel worked on drawing the demon and angel proofing sigils on all the doors and windows.

"Let's leave off angel-proofing sigils or I'll be expelled, too." Cas said to Sam.

"As long as we're invisible to your Garrison buddies, it works for me." Sam stated.

"You seem troubled. Of course, that's a primary aspect of your personality, so I sometimes ignore it." Cas rambled as he inspected a small statue of a deer.

"Okay. Um... right now I'm just wondering about you." Sam informed.

"What about me? You're worried about the burden I lifted from you."

"I think I was done for. Do you see Lucifer?" Sam asked.

"I did at first. But that was... It was a projection of yours, I think, sort of an aftertaste. Now I more see... well, everything. It's funny. I was – I was done for, too. The weight of all my mistakes, all those lives and souls lost, I... I couldn't take it, either. I was… I was lost until I took on your pain. It's strange to think that that helped, but –"

"I know you never did anything but try to help. I realize that, Cas, and I'm grateful. We're all grateful. And we're gonna help you get better, okay? No matter what it takes." Sam promised.

"What do you mean, "better"?" Cas asked, but before Sam could think of a reply Cas suddenly crooked his head to the side and stated, "I'll be back." Then he disappeared.

Sarah sat in the corner of her cell, her body in more pain than it had ever been before. This was it, her mental and physical breaking point and she did one thing that she had given up on.

"Castiel, I know that you're gone, but I don't know who pray to anymore. I don't think anyone is listening. I hope that where ever you ended up, that you were able to find peace. But if you can hear me please… please kill me. I can't handle any more of this… please…" she whispered hoarsely as tears silently fell. She sat there crying, not surprised that her prayer was going unanswered.

"You called for me." Castiel said bluntly, startling her.

"Cas!" she cried out. "Oh thank you! Just make it quick, please." She added closing her eyes, preparing for Cas to kill her.

He leaned down and helped her stand up, not noticing her look of confusion. Then he teleported back to Rufus' cabin. The journey proved to be too much for her body, and she collapsed in Cas' arms. He quickly caught her before she could fall to the ground.

"Cas, where did you go?" Sam asked walking into the room then stopped abruptly when he saw that Cas wasn't alone. "Who is that?" he asked since he couldn't Sarah's face.

"Help me." Was all Cas said as he held on to Sarah.

Sam rushed over and her from Cas and carried her over to the couch. After laying her on the couch, he finally saw who the girl was. "Sarah?" he asked shakily, moving her hair away from her face.

She slowly opened her eyes and whispered, "Sam?"

"Dean!" Sam yelled.

"What the hell is going on up here?" Dean growled running into the room to see what all the commotion was.

"Dean?" Sarah murmured at the sight of him, before passing out.

"What's going on? Where did she come from? Somebody tell me what the hell is going on!" he growled at the room, moving closer to examine her.

"I don't know. Cas just popped in with her." Sam stated looking over at Cas for an explanation.

"She prayed to me." Was all he said as he placed a hand on her forehead.

"And…? Where was she? What's wrong with her?" Dean asked hurriedly, looking down at her frail body.

"I'm not sure. Her aura is horribly damaged. And I believe she is suffering with at least 8 different forms of cancer and diseases. Among other things." Cas informed as he used his abilities to read Sarah's body.

"What?" Sam exclaimed, "Can you heal her?"

"I can try. It will take a little time." Cas said deep in thought.

"Cas, where was she?" Dean asked, taking her hand.

"I found her in a closet sized room at a Roman Industries building." Cas stated.

"Son of a bitch." Dean swore. "Alright, get to healing."

"Take her to the back room." Cas stated, "I'll be back, soon."

"Cas! Cas! Dammit!" Dean growled again. Sam gave Dean a look then moved to pick up Sarah from the couch. "Let me." Dean said, moving past Sam. He picked Sarah up and immediately noticed how much weight she had lost since the last time he'd seen her. Too much weight. He laid her gently on the cot in the back room and was startled by Castiel returning. "You can heal her right?"

"Yes, but it will take some time. I can heal most of her ailments but this, this should help her from getting worse, until I can heal her all the way." Castiel stated, while holding up an old torn piece of fabric.

"What is that?" Sam asked from the door way.

"It's a piece of the robe that Jesus wore. It has healing properties."

"Why can't you just heal her? Why do you need this robe thing?" Dean asked.

"Do to the extent of her ailments and my already weakened state, I will need some time to recharge between treatments. Now if you please." Cas walked over to Sarah and placed his hand on her stomach. A bright light began to fill the room.

A few days later…

Sarah woke to find that she was no longer in her cell but laying on a cot in a room that was somehow familiar.

"What the hell…" she mumbled as she slowly sat up, feeling very weak. She then tried to stand up but ended up falling back on the bed.

"Whoa. Easy there."

Sarah looked up to see Sheriff Jody rushing toward her. "Jody?"

"Hey there, girlie. How ya feeling?" Jody asked sitting next to Sarah on the bed.

"How am I here?"

"I don't know. Dean just said that a friend found you and brought you home."

"Where is Dean?"

"He and Sam had to go take care of something. Said they be back in a day or two and asked if I'd stay with you. That was a day and a half ago so they could be back at any point. What happened to you?"

"You don't want to know." Sarah said looking down.

"Come on, let's go get you something to eat." Jody said before helping Sarah to stand.

The late next evening Sam and Dean returned to Rufus' cabin. Dean immediately went to check on Sarah.

"She's going to be okay, Dean." Jody said walking into the room behind him.

Dean sat on the cot next to Sarah and stared down at her. He noticed she was gaining more color in her face but she was still just so thin. With a sad look on his face, he leaned down and placed a light kiss on her forehead. "She better be." Was all he said.

Dean and Sam stood around the kitchen table full of summoning ingredients. After cutting his hand to add the blood, Dean tossed a lit match into the bowl. Flames rose and then died down quickly. Both boys looked around around expectantly.

"Is he trying to make a grand entrance or...?" Dean asked.

"I don't know..." Sam replied, confused.

"Son of a bitch. He's standing us up."

"Well, we summoned him. Doesn't he kind of have to …"

"If Crowley wants to screw you, he'll screw you." Dean growled.

"Or... he _can't_ come 'cause something went wrong." Sam commented.

"Maybe."

"Did I miss something?" Sarah asked, startling the boys.

"Sarah!" Sam exclaimed rushing forward and pulling her into a hug. "You had us so worried!"

"Oh! Sam! Can't breathe!" she cried out as Sam gripped her tightly.

"Sorry." He said with a grin, releasing her. "I've just missed you."

"I've missed you too." Sarah admitted, "Both of you." She added, looking over at Dean, who was staring down at the floor. She walked over to stand in front of him. "Hey Dean."

He slowly looked up at her, "Sarah, I'm so sorry, I should've…"

Before he could finish she pulled him into a hug. A heavy sigh escaped her lips. "I've missed you so much."

Slowly Dean wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him, "I missed you too, Cakes."

At that, Sarah pulled back a little and placed her hands on either side of his face. "I thought I'd never see you gain." She said tearing up. Dean looked into her eyes for a moment before looking away again, a multitude of emotions showing in them. "It wasn't your fault Dean." She sighed.

"No. I should have stopped you. I should've…" Dean said moving away from her.

"What? Tied me up again? Come on, Dean. I can make my own decisions, even when their bad ones. I am a big girl." Sarah scolded.

"Heh. Not anymore…." Dean mumbled.

"What was that?" Sarah snapped getting frustrated.

"I said not anymore. You're not a big girl anymore. This bad decision took you from healthy to nothing more than a bag of bones. Sarah, we had no idea you were even in trouble. We thought you'd taken off again. I mean, what the hell were you thinking? We were being hunted by Leviathans! And you just go off on your own. I thought you were smarter than that." Dean said letting some of his frustration out.

"Dean." Sam said moving closer to them.

"No it's okay, Sam." Sarah said tiredly as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"No, it's not okay." Sam insisted sternly looking right at Dean.

Before anyone could say anything else, there was a knock on the door. Sam took out his gun and made his way over to the door.

"Maybe it's good news." Dean said sarcastically. Sam looked through a hole in the door, then opened it to reveal Meg.

"You deal with him. I can't anymore." She stated breezing into the cabin.

"You might want to be more specific." Dean chided.

"I was laying low halfway across the world when emo boy pops up out of nowhere and zaps me right back here." Meg explained exasperated before throwing curious eyes onto Sarah.

"Why?" Dean asked.

"Go ask him. He was your boyfriend first." Meg retorted.

Dean huffed and grabbed his jacket from the chair behind him. "We'll finish this later." He whispered to Sarah as he walked passed her and out the door.

Meg , Sarah and Sam all stood in silence for a moment before Meg said, "So… I see plain Jane found her way back."

Sarah rolled her eyes, "Always such a pleasure seeing you Meg. Isn't it about time for someone to kill you?"

"Cute. You really think you can take me in your condition." Meg said smugly.

"I can still send your ass back to hell. _Exorcisamus te, omnes in mundus spiritus..._" Sarah started chanting angrily.

"Ok. Enough!" Sam said interrupting her and stopping Meg from attacking her. "Sarah stop." He said putting his hands up toward both girls. Before he could say anything else Dean strode back inside with Castiel close behind him.

"Now, you understand I don't participate in aggressive activity." Castiel stated as he walked over to the table and picked up a bone before sniffing it. "Mm. Sister Mary Constant. Good choice."

"Why'd you go to Meg, Cas?" Dean asked tiredly, trying to keep his gaze away from Sarah.

"When I left, I wanted to observe the flowers – and fruit. Flowers come first, obviously. But I heard nothing from them." Castiel babbled.

"You heard nothing from who?" Sam asked, as he sat next to Sarah on the back of the couch.

"The Garrison." Castiel answered matter-of-factly.

"What happened to the Garrison?" Sam asked trying to get some more information.

"Well, finally, the silence was deafening, so I went to look... to the home of the Prophet. You know, Leviathan can kill angels. There's a reason why Father locked them in Purgatory. They're the Piranha that would eat the whole aquarium. They're gone. The entire Garrison – dead. If there's anyone left at all, they're in hiding."

"Um, I'm sorry. If the angels are dead, where's Kevin?" Dean grumbled.

"I could steal them from their cages, the monkeys. But where would I put them all?" Castiel rambled.

"Hey!" Dean yelled, clapping his hands in front of Castiel's face. "Focus. Is Kevin alive?"

"I don't want to fight." Castiel mumbled, shutting down.

"No, I'm not… we're worried." Dean said very frustrated.

"They took him. He's alive. I felt such responsibility, but it's in your hands now." Castiel admitted.

"Wait. Hold on a freakin' minute." Dean growled. Sarah grabbed his arm to keep him from scaring Cas.

"I feel much better." Castiel said relieved.

"Guys, what's all that?" Meg asked, interrupting the guys and pointing to the spell paraphernalia.

"We called Crowley." Sam replied.

"You _what?" _ Meg huffed.

"Don't worry. He never showed." Dean said.

"What do you mean never..." Meg asked sounding scared.

"Do you see him anywhere? He stood us up." Dean grumbled.

"Well, I'm sorry about that, but I'm outie. He could still sh…" Meg said.

"Show up at any time. Hello, boys. Sorry I'm late. This _is_ an embarrassment of riches." Crowley said startling everyone. He then turned to Meg and said, "Stay, won't you. There's really nowhere to run." Meg tried to run for the door but Crowley appeared in front of her, blocking her exit. "Don't even think of smoking out, pussycat. I've got eyes all over the place."

"Leave her be." Castiel interjected.

"Castiel. When last we spoke, you – well, enslaved me. I'm confused. Why aren't you dead?" Crowley inquired walking toward him.

"I... don't know." Castiel faltered.

"Well, do you want to be? 'Cause I can help with that." Crowley threatened.

"All right, enough." Dean warned.

"It's enough when I say. I came here to help you. I find out you've been lying to me, harboring an angel, and not just any angel – the one angel I most want to crush between my teeth." Crowley complained.

"Oh, so you can crush angels now, huh?" Meg goaded.

"You bore me. You know that? You have no sense of poetry." Crowley grumbled, looking back at Meg. As he turned back, he noticed Sarah. "Don't even get me started on you powder puff." He then turned back to Castiel and asked, "Now, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"Well, I'm still, uh, honing my communication strategy. I haven't even been back to Heaven. I-I keep thinking there are no insects up there, but here we have... trillions. You know, they're making honey and silk and... miracles, really." Castiel babbled. Dean exchanged a look with Crowley.

"What are you talking about?" Crowley asked confused.

"Um, preferring insects to angels, I guess. Here. I can offer a token, if you like." Castiel said holding up a plastic bag filled with honey. "It's honey. I-I collected it myself."

Crowley gave Dean another look. "You're off your rocker. He's off his rocker – is that it? Karma's a bitch, isn't it?"

"Look, did you come here to, uh, donkey-punch your old grudges or to help us end Dick? Pick a battle." Dean demanded.

"Well, I'm vexed. I'd like to do both. But where's the fun in clobbering a ball of wet fur? Text me when Sparkles here retrieves his marbles, I suppose. Meanwhile... a prezzie." Crowley said holding up a vial of blood.

"Really? Just boxed-up and ready to go?" Sam asked skeptically.

"I'm a model of efficiency." Crowley joked.

"Is that right? Then why were you late?" Sam asked.

"Dick had me in a devil trap. He's not an idiot. He knows what you two are after." Crowley said nonchalantly.

"So what did he offer you?" Sam asked.

"A fair deal. In exchange for giving you the wrong blood. It's demon, but is it mine? …It's my blood. Real deal."

"And why should we trust you?" Dean inquired. Sarah snorted at the absurdity.

"Good God, don't. Never trust anyone. A lesson I learned from my last business partner."

"All right. Give us the blood." Dean demanded.

"Certainly. Oh, bonus. Meg, I'm gonna scoop you up, take you home, and roast you till you're jerky." Crowley said sarcastically but added when Castiel moved closer, "But not... yet. Cas can have you for now. Hilariously, it seems he'd be upset at losing you. And the boys need Cas to get Dick. Don't they, Cas?"

"Oh, I – I don't fight anymore." Cas said nervously.

"Come on. Given the particulars of your enemy, sadly, you're vital." Crowley hinted before tossing the vial to Sam before disappearing.

"Well great. Just great." Dean muttered.

After a few moments, Sarah broke the silence, "Well, I think I'll leave you boys to… whatever it is you're doing." Sarah pushed away from the couch and added, "Cas? Could I speak to you for a minute? Downstairs?"

Dean caught her arm before she could walk away, "What's wrong?"

Sarah stared up at him then down at his hand, "Everything's fine. I just need to talk to Cas about something." At his reluctance, she added, "It's ok. Trust me." He finally let her go and she walked over to the basement stairway calling for Cas to follow her.

"You seem unsettled." Cas said bluntly once they were downstairs. Sarah paced for a moment before stopping abruptly in front of him and pulled him into a hug. And immediately started crying. "Uhh… I don't know what to do. I don't know how to handle upset women. Meg never cry's. She just yells but I guess that being a hunted demon would make one angry."

"Cas! Shut up." She said pulling back to look at him. "I'm not angry. I'm overwhelmed. You're alive! And thank you for saving me. I don't know how I could possibly repay you for saving me from that… place."

Cas stared into Sarah's eyes curiously. "But that is not why you wanted to see me down here."

Sarah moved away from Castiel, turning her back on him. "You're right. I was… I was… wondering…"

"You want to know if you are healed." He finished for her. Sarah turned to look at him again. He placed his hand on her head and closed his eyes. After a moment, he opened his eyes again and stepped away, not meeting her eyes.

"Can you… do anything?" She asked softly.

"I'm sorry. In my weakened state I cannot heal you from everything. Given that we survive this war, I should be able to heal the rest." He said a little more lucid than he was a few minutes earlier. "Do you still have the cloth I gave you?"

"Yes." Sarah said pulling it out of her pocket.

"Good. Make sure to keep this with you always. It should help you from getting any worse."

Sarah nodded as the tears flowed freely down her cheeks again, knowing there was a chance that she wouldn't recover from this. "Can you tell me what I have?" Castiel stayed silent. "If you don't finish healing me… will this kill me?"

A while later….

"Hey. You alright down here?" Dean asked, walking down the stairs to the basement. He saw Sarah sitting with her head in her hands. "Sarah?" he said as he touched her arm, finally getting her attention.

She pushed her hair back and wiped her face quickly before looking up at him. "Hey, Dean. What's going on?"

"What happened? You've been down here for hours. What did Cas say to you?" Dean asked instantly concerned.

"…nothing. Nothing happened." She said standing up awkwardly.

"Then why are you upset?"

"I'm not. I'm just tired. What's going on upstairs? Did I miss anything?" she asked moving toward the stairs.

"You'd tell me if something was wrong, right?" he asked as he stopped her from walking all the way up the stairs.

Sarah looked down at him sadly, "Of course."

She moved to continue walking but Dean kept his hold on her hand. "Are we okay?"

Sarah looked down at him for a moment, before cupping his cheek with her free hand. She rubbed her thumb against his stubble then closed the gap and placing a soft kiss on his lips. "Always." She murmured pulling away.

Dean quickly pulled her closer and crushed his lips on hers. He pulled her close to him before maneuvering her against the wall, digging one hand into her hair and using the other to keep a tight grip on her. Sarah met him eagerly. Holding on to him as tightly as possible.

Dean pulled back at the feel of something wet hitting his cheek. He looked down at her and saw the streaks of tears on her cheeks. He wiped on tear away with his thumb and looked at her curiously.

She quickly pushed away from him and wiped at her cheeks. "It's nothing. Just happy that I'm here. I never thought I'd get to see you again." She said trying to cut off his questions.

Thankfully, before Dean could ask anything Sam yelled from upstairs. "Hey, Dean? You ready?"

Dean stared back at Sarah for a moment before yelling, "Yeah. Be right up."

"You guys going somewhere?" Sarah asked, still trying to get control of her emotions.

"Uh… yeah. We've got the weapon and we're going after Dick tonight."

Sarah's eyes widened a little before she shook her head. "Well, I better not keep you. You two have important work to do."

"Sarah…"

"I should go say goodbye to Sam." Sarah said cutting him off and rushing up the stairs before he could stop her. Once upstairs she found Sam waiting impatiently by the table.

"Finally. We've gotta go."

Sarah walked over to him and gave him a hug. "Be safe, Sambo. Don't let them get the drop on you. Okay?"

"Don't worry Sarah. We'll be back before you know it." He said trying to say something positive after noticing how fragile she looked.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Dean sat staring at the old flask he had clasped in his hands, listening to Sam talk on the phone.

"So you're saying that Bobby is a ghost?! And he possessed some maid?!" Sarah asked unbelievingly. "No. Not possible."

"So you don't have any problem believing Bobby is dead? Just the fact that he is now a ghost is what you don't believe?" Dean asked curiously.

Sarah sighed. "I already knew Bobby was gone. Dick made a special appearance to see me just to rub it in my face."

"And you just believed him?" Dean asked skeptically.

"No, I didn't. But he brought the security video from the hospital." Sarah said remembering that horrible day. "He enjoyed seeing my heart break. Watching both of you in the hospital with him. I saw your hopeful faces when he woke up and I saw your pain when he died. I had to live that over and over again. And he just laughed. So yes I know that Bobby is gone but I'm sorry it's just too hard to believe that Bobby could do something so awful as possessing a helpless woman."

"Well he's a bit different than he used to be." Was all Dean said, returning his gaze to the flask in his hands.

"Okay, thanks." Sam said before hanging up his phone. "She's fine. Checking out of the hospital tonight."

"Well, that's positive." Castiel stated, holding up a sandwich for Sam.

"Tell me again why you turned tail for some maid." Meg said from her perch in a doorway, holding onto her beer. Castiel walked over and put sandwiches in front of Dean and Sarah. "You were right there."

"Shut up, Meg." Dean warned.

"Because Dick made more Dicks." Sam said bluntly. "He must've kept a chunk of the original Dick Roman somewhere. Uh, they'd all have to touch it."

Castiel looked around awkwardly before starting to wash the dishes that were in the sink.

"Hey, shifty, what's your problem?" Dean asked noticing Cas' behavior.

"Do we need a cat? Doesn't this place feel one species short?" Cas asked trying to change the subject.

"You got anything to say on the topic of Dicks? Crowley was pretty sure that you could help." Dean quipped.

"I can't help. You understand? I can't. I destroyed... everything, and I will destroy everything again. Can we please just leave it at that?" Cas stammered.

"No." Dean said sternly, getting up. "No, we can't."

"Dean..." Sam cautioned. Sarah grabbed Dean's arm, trying to calm him.

"We can't leave it. You let these friggin' things in. So you don't get to make a sandwich. You don't get a damned cat. Nobody cares that you're broken, Cas. Clean up your mess!" Dean demanded, shaking Sarah's hand away.

Castiel put down the dish he was holding and walked over to directly over to Dean. "You know… we should play Twister." Sam and Dean shared a looked before Castiel disappeared.

"Nice. You scared off the Empire's only hope." Meg accused.

"Meaning?" Dean retorted frustrated.

"It occur to you every one of those things was in Cas? He knows them. He can see past the meat suits." Meg informed.

"So, he'll be able to spot the real... fake Dick Roman." Sam caught on.

"Gold star, sugarpants. Too bad he's Fruit Loops. You might've had a chance." Meg chided.

"Oh, give it a rest Meg." Sarah scowled.

A moment later, they see Cas had reappeared and was playing Twister on the floor.

"Great." Dean muttered.

A while later….

Dean sat looking at footage from the Sucrocorp office on his laptop. "There's no real point in looking for a tell. They all downloaded Dick's brain. They've all got the same tells."

"All right, then maybe the question is, what would the real Dick be doing?" Sam suggested as he passed the room.

"Is that the best you can do? Idjits." Bobby grumbled, appearing behind the couch.

"Bobby. We didn't know if you'd, uh …" Sam alluded.

"Well, you should've. You got the flask. Dumb. You should've burned it right off." Bobby said cutting him off.

"Bobby …" Dean said, trying not to wake Sarah who was curled up on the couch next to him.

"I'm still jonesing to go back... grab some poor bastard, kamikaze 'em going after Dick. It's bad." Bobby admitted before noticing the laptop that was playing an interview with Dick Roman. Suddenly the laptop closed. "Let's be real. I damn near killed you. And that woman." He admitted to Sam.

"It wasn't your fault, Bobby – not really." Sam tried.

"Right. That's just what ghosts turn into. I really bet the farm I could outsmart that." Bobby replied.

"So, what's it feel like?" Dean asked.

"What? Going vengeful? It's an itch you can't scratch out." Bobby responded.

Sarah stirred from her sleep, feeling the change in the room's temperature. She looked up and saw Sam and Dean talking with Bobby. She screamed out, jumping from the couch. "Bobby?!"

"Hey there girlie. It's good to see that you found your way home." He said with a sad smile. Then turned back to the boys, " Look... I'm done. Go get Dick. But don't do it 'cause you think it'll scratch the itch. Do it 'cause it's the job. And when it's your time... go."

Dean stoked the burning coals in the old blacksmith forge that Rufus had in the basement. He looked back at Bobby. Sam shifted a little closer to Sarah.

"Here's to... running into you guys on the other side. Only... not too soon. All right?" Bobby said before giving Dean a small nod.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Dean turned back to the forge and tossed the flask onto the coals. It slowly begins to melt. All of them look back at Bobby and watched as Bobby disappeared in the orange glow of fire. Dean turned back and shared a sad look with Sam. Sam wrapped his arm around Sarah's shoulders and guided her back up the stairs.

The next morning, Sarah sat on the porch watching the sunrise trying to come to grips with having to say goodbye to Bobby, the looming battle with the Leviathans and what her life would be if by some miracle she survived it. And trying to decide if or how she could possibly tell Dean that she was dying.

Another wave of tears threatened to fall as Dean walked outside.

"Want some coffee?" he asked holding up a mug for her.

"Thanks." She murmured, taking the cup from him.

"You gonna tell me what's wrong?"

"I told you, nothing's wrong." She lied.

"Liar." Dean stated.

Sarah looked down at her coffee and sighed, "Alright. There is something that could possibly be wrong but I don't want to talk about it. It's not important right now."

"Whatever it is, you know I'm here for you." He said placing a hand on her arm.

"I know, Dean. Let's just focus on taking out Dick. I'll open up after. I promise." She promised.

"Okay, Cakes." Sighing, Dean reached up and tucked a few stray hairs behind her ear. "But you better believe I'm gonna hound about it once all of this is over."

Sarah smirked at his candidness. "I bet you will." She got up and hugged him. "Tell me something."

Dean pulled back a little and looked down at her confused. "Tell you what?"

"Why are you still holding so much anger towards Cas?"

Dean stiffened a little in her arms, "Are you kidding? He let those monsters out! He's the one that started this war. What I'm just supposed to just forgive and forget?"

"Calm down. I didn't ask so we could argue." She said trying to calm his instant attitude.

"Then why?"

"I just wanted to make an observation. Tell you what I see." She said calmly. "I know we need Cas to help find which leviathan is the real Dick, but he's scared."

"It doesn't take a genius to see that. And it's really something to see an Angel scared and hiding."

"That's the thing. We can't think of him as an Angel. An ancient being."

"Oh yeah then how?"

"You have to look at him as if he were a child. A child that did something very, very bad. But a child none the less. Now if a kid did something that they were sorry for, would you still hold it over their heads? No. You'd forgive them and move on. That's what you need to do here."

"Right. Right. And how does that get him to help us?" Dean asked sarcastically.

"It might not. But I do have to say that a little forgiveness and some kindness could go a long way." She reasoned. She then kissed his cheek before walking back inside the cabin.

A few minutes later, Dean strode into the cabin and walked directly over to the table where Castiel was playing a board game by himself.

"Cas, I need a wingman." Dean stated.

"Dean..." Cas said warily.

"You don't want to jump into the jaws of death, that's... fine. How about we run a little errand?" Dean asked.

They left a moment later.

Sarah looked up at Sam with a smirk on her face.

"Did he just say what I think he said?" Sam asked.

"Yep." She said making the 'p' sound pop.

"Thank God. I thought he'd never forgive Cas." Sam said relieved.

A few hours later, Dean returned with Cas and the impala and they all went over the plan for the next morning.

Meg was to be the front entrance distraction. Sam and Sarah were to sneak in and find Kevin. And Dean and Cas were to find Dick and kill him.

"Are you sure you're up to this Sarah?" Sam asked again as they made their way into SucroCorp.

"Yes." Sarah answered as they stalked through the hallway trying to stay undetected. "Plus, if I'm going out then I'm going out fighting." She muttered.

"What?" Sam whispered back to her.

"It's nothing Sam. We've got to keep moving." She whispered to him as they quickly searched for Kevin.

After searching most of the second floor, they finally found Kevin in an office tied to the chair and gagged.

"Kevin. Hey, buddy. We got to hustle, okay?" Sam said as he untied Kevin and Sarah watched the hall.

"Wait. We can't leave yet." Kevin declared once the duct tape was off his mouth.

"Uh, yeah, we can. It's okay. We got to go." Sam insisted.

"Guy's come on!" Sarah urged.

"You don't understand. Dick's got creamer in his lab. He's gonna kill all the skinny people." Kevin yelled frantically.

"Wait. What? Slow down." Sam said trying to calm him.

"We have to blow up the lab, Sam. Please." Kevin pleaded.

Sam looked up at Sarah in indecision. "I'm in. If you are Sambo." She said answering his unasked question.

"Yeah, fine. Let's go." Sam sighed, ushering Kevin to the door.

Sarah popped her head into the hall to check that the coast was clear then waved Sam and Kevin out. They quickly made their way down to the lab, managing to avoid all of the leviathans and ran into the lab in time to see Dean stab Dick through the neck with the bone. Sarah moved to run over to Dean but Sam held her back as a weird energy started to emit from Dick.

"Dean!" Sarah yelled out, frightened by the energy that was steadily emitting stronger and faster from Dick. Dean looked over at her just before the energy intensified causing Dick to explode. Sam quickly pushed her behind him and covered Sarah and Kevin from the blast of black goo that suddenly flew through the air.

After a moment, Sam released his hold on Sarah and turned around to see the room splattered with black goo but no sign of Dean, Castiel or Dick.

"Sam, we should go." Kevin urged, trying to hold back some of his panic.

"What the hell?" Sam muttered.

"Where's Dean?" Sarah asked softly.

"More chompers any second guys." Kevin warned.

"Not to worry. I have a small army of demons outside. Cut off the head, and the body will flounder after all. Think if you'd had just one king since the first sunrise. You'd be in a kerfuffle, too." Crowley said appearing inside the room.

"Which is exactly what you wanted." Sam said gruffly.

"So did you. Without a master plan, the Levis are just another monster. Hard to stomp, sure but you love a challenge. Your job is to keep them from organizing." Crowley instructed.

"Where's Dean?" Sarah pressed.

"That bone… has a bit of a kick. God weapons often do. They should put a warning on the box." Crowley quipped.

"Where are they, Crowley?" Sam snapped.

"Can't help you, Sam." Crowley sighed snapping his fingers. Two demons appeared on either side of Kevin. "Sorry, Sam. Prophet's mine." He snapped his fingers again and the demons disappeared with Kevin. "You got what you wanted… Dick's dead, saved the world. So I want one little prophet. Sorry, moose. Wish I could help. You certainly got a lot on your plate right now. It looks like you are well and truly… on your own."

"He's not on his own. Don't forget that he has me and I'll do whatever it takes to kill you." Sarah spat.

Crowley calmly looked over at Sarah. "No, Sarah. The constant thorn in my side. I didn't forget about you. It's just... now that the angel is MIA, you won't be around much longer to be of any help to him."

"What?! Why? You trying to threaten her?" Sam growled protectively.

Crowley's gaze didn't leave Sarah's. "Didn't tell him, huh? Well you all just love keeping your secrets." Crowley laughed. "Just so you know, I'm willing to make a deal." He added with a taunting glint in his eye before he disappeared.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Sarah and Sam made their way back to Rufus' cabin in the busted up impala. Neither one of them willing or wanting to talk about what had happened. They spent two days in silence at the cabin as Sam began to fix the impala.

"I didn't realize that you could fix cars too." Sarah said as she watched Sam work, from her spot on the

Sam sighed and put down the tool he had been using, "I guess, some of Dean rubbed off on me."

"It could be worse, you could have gotten his appetite for red meat." Sarah said cracking a small smile.

Sam chuckled a little, then continued to work on the impala. Sarah watched him for another minute then moved to get up from her seat on the porch steps but flinched as pain shot through her body. It subsided some after a moment and she continued to stand up.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on with you?" Sam asked not looking up from his work.

Sarah slowly turned back to look at him, "Nothing's going on."

Sam threw down the wrench he had been using, his emotions coming to the surface. "Dammit, Sarah! Enough. We're all we have now. So cut the crap and tell me what is going on."

Sarah stared at him a moment, stunned by his brashness, then sighed, "I'm dying."

"What?" he asked walking over to her.

Sarah looked down as she leaned against the post. "The Leviathans used me as a human sized petri dish. Somehow managed to give me a couple types of cancer, disease and some other things."

"Cas…?"

"Cas fixed what he could but with his weakened state… he couldn't fix everything. He was going to finish after he had recharged." Sarah said sadly.

Sam sighed heavily, "How… how long do you have?"

"I don't know. If the cancer doesn't kill me, then the tumors will but that's if my liver doesn't fail before then."

"Sarah… I'm so sorry." Sam whispered wrapping her into a hug. "What… what should we…"

"We don't have to do anything, Sam." Sarah said pulling back. "I want you to understand, I am not your responsibility. I'm gonna go check out some doctors and hospitals. See if I can find a miracle."

"Sarah, I'm not going to just let you go through this alone."

"No, you need to worry about yourself. My future is pretty much set. But you still have one." She cupped his face and pulled him down enough so she could kiss his forehead. "Promise me that whatever happens this year, you will find something that makes you happy."

Several months later…

Sarah walked up to the motel room door feeling very nervous. 'What am I doing here?' she thought. Pulling out her compact mirror she checked her appearance again. Her wig was falling to the side slightly, making the part lay at an odd angle on her balding head. She readjusted it then looked at her much rounder face, product of the steroids from her chemotherapy.

Sighing, she started to turn around, not wanting to see anyone but the door swung open.

"Can I help you?" the brunette woman asked.

Sarah turned back toward her, "Um… No… I was…" She looked up into the room passed the woman and saw Sam walking out of the bathroom. "Um…"

"Sarah?" Sam asked, as he walked to the door.

"Hey Sambo." Sarah said nervously.

"You know each other?" the woman asked, breaking Sam from his shocked daze.

"I'm sorry. Amelia this is Sarah, my sister." Sam explained.

"Your sister? I thought you said she was gone." Amelia said sensing something was off.

"Almost..." Sarah said sadly.

Sam pulled her into a hug. He looked at Amelia and asked, "Amelia, could I have a minute alone with Sarah?"

Amelia nodded and walked out of the room. Sam lead Sarah into the room and they took a seat on the couch. "What's going on Sarah? Aren't you in the middle of a treatment?"

"I am. I just… I'm have a surgery tomorrow. It's… for a new procedure. Experimental." Sarah stammered.

"Oh. Do you want me to be there?" Sam asked instantly concerned.

"What? No. No. You have your life here. And I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see you happy." Sarah said placing her hand on his arm. "Besides. That's not why I'm here. Well not only why." She reached into her purse and pulled out a very over decorated package. "Happy Birthday, Sambo. Well, happy early birthday."

Sam stared at her in shock again, then down at the present. "You got me a present?"

"I know, we're not big present people but I thought, with this possibly being my last chance, that I'd… give you something to remember me by." Sarah rambled. Sam looked down at the present in his hands. Sarah chuckled at his puzzled expression. "I know I went a little crazy with the wrapping."

Sam smiled a little before finally finding a way to tear the wrapping paper of. Once it was off he uncovered a framed picture of him with Dean and Sarah from their childhood.

"Oh my. How on earth did you find this?" Sam asked amazed. "How old is it?"

"It was a little while after I'd come to live with you guys. It's my most prized possession. I've somehow managed to keep it all of these years."

"Sarah… I can't…"

"Yes you can. It needs to be with one of us and there's no telling what might happen to it if my surgery goes bad." Sarah said seriously.

"Sarah… you can't think like that. I'm sure you're going to be fine." Sam said trying to comfort her.

Sarah looked down at the picture, not wanting to have this conversation with him. "It's still hard to believe that you were so scrawny."

Sam noticed her deflection but decided not to push the issue. "Yeah, well you were kind of gangly, yourself."

Sighing again, Sarah looked at her watch before saying, "I need to be getting back. Do you think it would be alright if I talked with your girl for a moment before I go?"

Sam gave her a confused look then said, "Uh… sure. I guess." He left and Amelia walked in a minute later.

"You wanted to see me?" Amelia asked, as she studied Sarah.

"I just wanted to say Thank you." Sarah said then added, "Thank you for making Sam so happy. His life has been filled with so much pain that it's a relief for me that he's finally found some happiness."

Amelia stared at Sarah in shock, having not expected that. "Um… your welcome… Do you think you could…"Amelia fished.

"Sam will tell you when he's ready. He's very much the strong silent type and that's his story to tell not mine but just know, the amount of crap that we've seen is not something either of us likes to talk about. And trust me, if I hadn't lived it with him, I wouldn't know either." Sarah explained then changed the subject, "Could you do me a favor?"

"Sure."

"Sam's birthday is the day after tomorrow." Sarah said, surprising Amelia. "Could you make sure he has a good one?"

"Really? He didn't say anything."

"We were never very good at birthdays. Would you make sure it's one he'll remember?" Sarah asked very serious.

"Of course." Amelia answered, not understanding why it was so important to Sarah.

"Well I have to go." Sarah said standing up.

"Wait. Don't go. You should stay. I would love the chance to get to know you better." Amelia tried.

"And I would love that but I have plans that can't be changed." Sarah stated moving toward the door. "Tell Sam I said goodbye." And she practically fled from the room, before she became overwhelmed by her emotions. She hurried out the her car and left before Sam could run out and stop her.

Sarah slowly opened her eyes, the anesthesia wearing off from her surgery and saw a mop of brown hair covering her shoulder. Sarah revealed in the fact that Sam was there, even when she'd told him not to. Smiling, she reached up and stroked his hair, "Hey Sambo."

Sam stirred and sat up, "Hey Sarah."

"What are you doing here?" Sarah asked.

Sam smirked a little, "You know I'd never let you do this alone. How are you feeling."

"Honestly, I'm surprised that I'm still breathing." Sarah half joked. "Have you talked to the doctor?"

"Yeah. He, uh, said that everything went fine, and they were able to remove some of the cancer from your abdomen."

"But not all." Sarah said sadly. "Well, I guess Crowley was right. There's not much hope for me."

"Sarah, don't give up. We'll keep fighting this. You'll get better. You have to." Sam said taking her hand.

"Alright, Sambo. Alright." Sarah said, seeing the almost frantic look in his eyes at the thought of losing another person.

"Good." Sam sighed in relief, placing a kiss on her forehead.

"Hey Sam?" Sarah asked, getting him to look at her again. "Thank you for being here."

Sam smiled, holding her hand a little tighter. "Well thank you for giving me a birthday."

A few months later…

"What do you mean you're leaving Amelia?" Sarah screeched into the phone.

Sam sighed heavily into the phone. "It's complicated."

"Why is it complicated? You finally had something normal and stable. What happened?" Sarah asked full of concern then added when he remained silent. "Talk to me. Or I could call up Amelia and ask her, if you want."

Sam sighed heavily. "You remember how I told you that her husband was killed in action?"

"Yeah?"

"There was an error and… well… he's back."

"What?! Oh Sam, I'm so sorry."

"Yeah, well… I'm, uh… gonna spend a few days at Rufus's cabin and figure out what my next step is gonna be." Sam said as he walked up to the cabin door. "But I just wanted to know where I'd be…"

The line went dead after a loud thud.

"Sam?!" Sarah yelled out. She immediately tried to call him back.

"It's Sam. Leave a message." Sam's voicemail immediately picked up.

"Dammit!" Sarah growled trying to call him again and again, only getting his voicemail. Sarah painfully got out of her bed and grabbed her keys and her gun before racing outside as fast as she could manage.

She drove as fast as she could to Rufus's cabin, praying that Sam was alright.

It was dark out by the time she got to the cabin. Sarah parked a little ways away and stalked up to the porch. She could hear voices inside but couldn't see anything through the windows, so she readied her gun and burst through the door.

She about fainted at the sight before her.

"Dean?" Sarah asked in shock.

Dean instantly grabbed a bottle and moved toward her.

"Dean! No!" Sam yelled jumping in Deans way and taking the bulk of the borax that Dean flung toward her. Sarah started to sway on her feet, the excitement becoming too much for her. Sam spun to look at her and managed to catch her before she fell to the floor. "Sarah? Sarah, wake up!" he yelled. He pushed her short hair away from her face and felt how warm she was. "Dammit. She's running a fever."

"Well she has been known to get sick from time to time." Dean stated, not understanding why Sam was so worried.

Sam picked Sarah up, "You don't understand." He carried her to one of the beds. "We have to get this fever down now. Get some cold wet towels and ice. Now!"

Dean hurried over to the freezer and grabbed the ice trays and tossed them to Sam before running to the bathroom to grab some towels. When he returned with the cold towels, Sam grabbed them from him and started covering Sarah.

"Alright, are you gonna tell me what's going on?" Dean asked.

Sam sighed heavily, as he checked her forehead. "She's sick."

"Sick how?" Dean asked getting annoyed.

"Dying, Dean. She's dying." Sam snapped.

"What? No. You're over reacting. She's just a little under the weather. She'll be fine." Dean insisted.

"No Dean, you still don't understand. She never got healed all the way after Cas rescued her from Dick. So yes, if she gets a fever it's cause to panic." Sam scolded.

Dean got up and walked outside, leaving Sam to care for Sarah. After a little while Sarah began to wake up.

"Hey, Sarah." Sam said moving the wet cloth from her forehead.

Sarah looked around the room confused. "Sam? Why am I all wet?"

"You had a fever and fainted. I was trying to bring the fever down." Sam explained. "Sarah, why are you here? You know you're not supposed to leave the hospital."

"Why do you think?" Sarah said sarcastically. "We were in the middle of a conversation when all of a sudden I hear a loud thud and then the phone went dead. I kept calling you but it went straight to voice mail, so I panicked."

"Yeah, I guess I should have called you." Sam said helping her to sit up. "How are you feeling?"

"As good as I ever feel. I guess this was a little too much excitement, I mean, when I got here I must have been getting delirious. I thought I saw…"

"Dean." Sam finished for her. She gave him an odd look. "I guess I should have called and told you right away. He's back."

Sarah sighed heavily. "Sam, please don't tease me."

"I'm not. He's really back."

"Then where…"

"Purgatory." Sam stated.

Sarah's eyes widened. "Oh my. Is he alright?"

"Yeah. I think so." Sam said, zoning out.

Sarah suddenly started to feel uncomfortable, her hand flying up to her short, dingy hair. "… well, since you are obviously not in danger… then I should get back to the hospital." She said moving to get up.

Sam snapped out of his thoughts. "You're not going to stay and see Dean? He should be back soon."

"No. I really should be getting back." She stammered.

"You shouldn't be driving. Wait until morning and I'll drive you back." Sam reasoned.

"I'll be fine. Really. I made it here alright, didn't I?" Sarah responded, moving towards the door.

"Yeah and it's a miracle that you actually made it here in your condition." Sam retorted grabbing her arm and making her face him. "Why don't you want to see Dean?"

"What? Of course I want to see him… I just…" Sarah started to protest but Sam gave her an unconvinced look. She looked at the floor, trying to hide the tears that were filling her eyes. "I… I don't want Dean to see me like this."

"Like what?"

"Like this blob? Sam, look at me. I'm hideous." She growled.

Sam made her look up at him. "Sarah, you're beautiful and you know it. How many of the orderlies have asked you out? Hmmm?" he pulled her into a hug. "Everything will be fine."

"Thanks Sambo." She whispered, holding on to him tightly. "Hey… would you go grab me some aspirin? My heads starting to hurt."

"Sure." Sam replied, before releasing her and walking back toward the bathroom.

"Sorry Sam." Sarah muttered, as she quietly rushed outside. She hurried back to her car and quickly left. Her phone started blaring as soon as she started to drive away.

"Sarah! What are you doing?" Sam growled.

"Sorry Sam. I know I should stay but I just can't see Dean. I don't want him to remember me this way." She confessed.

"And what am I supposed to tell Dean when he gets back? That you don't want to see him? He just got back from freakin Purgatory. He's already pissed enough at me for quitting and now you don't even want to see him?!"

"I'm sorry." She cried before hanging up on him.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Two months later…

Sarah laid in her hospital bed, listening as the hospital monitors beeped in the background. She knew this was the end. The cancer that had been removed months before had come back worse than before. She had tried to call Sam a few times since she fled Rufus's cabin but he seemed to still be mad at her. And she still hadn't worked up the courage to call Dean since his return from purgatory.

"Hello." A voice said pulling Sarah from thoughts.

Weakly, she looked over to see Castiel standing next to her bed. "Cas?" she whispered. "Thank you, my old friend. I didn't want to die alone."

Without replying he placed his hand on her stomach, causing a bright light to fill the room. Sarah felt like the air was being sucked out of her body.

"What is going on in here?" a nurse barked as she ran into the room.

"This is none of your concern." Cas said in his usual monotone voice.

"Who are you? How did you get in here?" the nurse demanded, moving towards the phone obviously disturbed by Cas' appearance and the sight of Sarah clutching the bed and hyperventilating.

He disappeared quickly making the nurse scream and reappeared behind the nurse.

"Cas! No!" Sarah yelled but it was too late. He pressed his hand to the nurses forehead and she screamed as bright light poured out from her eyes. She fell lifeless to the floor, her eyes burned from their sockets. "What are you doing Cas?!" He continued to remain silent as he walked back over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder, teleporting them to Rufus's cabin.

Sarah nearly fell to the floor after Cas let go of her. "Dammit Cas! What the hell is going on?" She growled moving to the couch for support.

"I am here to complete my promise." He replied.

"What promise? What was all that back at the hospital? You killed that nurse!"

"I killed a demon. A demon that had been tasked to make you suffer for as long as possible before dying."

Sarah let that sink in. "That bastard. He couldn't just let me die in peace? … I mean, it's not peaceful by any means…" Cas walked over and placed his hand on her stomach again, using his powers to continue healing her again.

A few days later, Sarah woke up to find that she was on one of the beds in the back room of Rufus's cabin. It took her a few moments to remember how she had gotten there and why she was feeling better than she had in years. Pulling back her sleeves, she looked at her arms and saw that all of her scars from the various needle marks were gone. Her skin looked healthy. Slowly she reached up and felt her head before jumping up and rushing to the bathroom to look in the mirror.

She almost didn't recognize what she saw. Cas not only had healed her illnesses, he had regrown her hair too. "Cas! Castiel! CASTIEL! Get your feathery ass down here! Now!" she yelled. She saw Castiel appear behind her in the mirror. "So it is real."

"Sarah…"

"How? Sam said that you didn't survive Purgatory." She said cutting him off.

"I don't know how. I'm just back." He said evasively walking out to the main room of the cabin.

"Does Dean and Sam know that you're back?" Sarah asked following him.

"Yes."

"Oh." Sarah whispered, trying not to be upset that they didn't call and tell her. "So… uh… am I…?"

"You are fully healed." Cas stated. "Although, you wouldn't have been as hard to heal if you had kept the fabric I gave you."

Sarah looked down and was about to respond when she heard her phone beep from the table by her bed. "Regardless, Cas, thank you for once again saving me." She said as she pulled him into a hug. "And thank you for giving me back my hair." She whispered before pulling back and walking over to the table.

"I had made a promise to heal you. Plus, Sam had told me how upset you were about your hair." Cas rambled.

"Sam." Sarah said looking down at her phone. "Dammit."

"What?" Cas asked.

Sarah walked over to the dresser and rummaged around until she found an old shirt of Dean's and a pair of her old jeans. "Sam texted me that Amelia was in danger." She walked into the bathroom again and changed into the fresher clothes and discarding her several day old hospital ones on the floor. "Cas? Could you maybe get me to Kermit, Texas?" She asked.

"Sure." He said moving to place his hand on her head.

"Wait. Wait. I'll be right back." Sarah said before running downstairs to the basement and grabbing a bag. She quickly filled it with some knives, guns and ammo then quickly ran back upstairs to a waiting Castiel. Grabbing one of Bobby's old jackets she said, "Okay. I'm ready."

Cas teleported Sarah to the old motel that Sam had worked at. Sarah began looking around, trying to figure out what direction to go in. "Ok, this is where Sam stayed when he first came here. It's kinda late but I think the people that own this motel may know where to find Amelia. Let's go."

"I can't. I have to go." Cas stated before disappearing.

"Oh come on!" Sarah growled at the air. She quickly made her way to motel office.

"Can I help you?" a young guy asked from behind the counter.

"Yeah. I'm looking for a friend of mine. Her name is Amelia. Have you seen her lately?" Sarah asked suddenly realizing that she didn't know Amelia's last name.

"Amelia who?" the guy asked.

"Well, I'm having a little bit of trouble remember that right now. But seriously, how many Amelia's do you know?"

The guy gave her a weird look, "Um… I can't give out that information."

Sarah huffed and grabbed the guys shirt, pulling him closer. "Look, someone very important to me is worried about her. So either tell me where I can find her or I start breaking things. And trust me, it's been a long time since I've been able to break anything." Suddenly Sarah was pulled back, forcefully and thrown across the room. "Oh, buddy, you just made a horrible choice." She hissed, flipping her hair away from her face so she could see who had attacked her.

"Sarah?" Sam asked as he stared at her in surprise.

"Sam?"

"You know her, Sam?" the guy behind the counter asked, still staring at them in shock over what had just happened.

Sam's features softened and he moved to help Sarah stand up. Once she was standing he pushed more of her hair away from her face. "How… you know what? I don't care. Come here." He said pulling her into a hug. He pulled back quickly, "Oh, sorry. I don't want to hurt you."

Sarah looked back at him with a smile, "You didn't."

"Um…" the guy behind the counter mumbled awkwardly.

Without turning around, Sam said, "Can I get a room, Everett?"

"Sure." Everett said.

Once inside the motel room, Sam dropped a six pack of beer on the counter and pulled Sarah into another bone crushing hug. "Just please tell me it was Cas. Please tell me it's not a demon deal."

"Sam, I'm offended. Of course it was Cas. You know I'd never do a damn demon deal. I was on my death bed still saying no to them." She said giving him a 'duh' look. "So tell me, why did I get the 911 text about Amelia? Did something happen to her?" Sam's mood instantly changed and he walked towards the couch obviously agitated. "Sam? Tell me. What happened?"

"Dean." Sam practically growled. "He sent me a phantom text from her. To get me out of the way."

"What? He wouldn't do that… would he?" Sam turned and gave her a serious look. "Why?" she asked growing serious.

He huffed, "Because he chose a damn vampire over me."

"Ok. You're gonna have to start from the beginning for me." Sarah said grabbing two of the beers and sat on the couch next to him.

After some beer and a little gentle prodding from Sarah, Sam opened up about what Dean had done to him. That during a case, involving the vampire Dean had befriended in Purgatory, Dean sent Sam a distress text from a burner phone, saying it was from Amelia.

Sarah sat shocked by what she was hearing. She couldn't believe that Dean had acted so coldly.

After a few more beers, Sarah ran out to go get some more and to give herself a few minutes to mull over all that she had learned.

When she returned to the motel room she could tell that Dean had arrived. Sarah stood glued to the spot in front of the door, listening to their argument.

"You think this is just about Benny?" Sam growled.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Dean growled back.

"What the hell do you think I'm talking about?" Sam snapped.

"Amelia? Oh, come on, man. I sent you that text 'cause I needed you to… to…"

"You needed me to what? To tear ass to Texas? To be afraid that what happened to Jessica, what happened to… everybody that we care about might have happened to her?"

"You were gonna kill Benny. What was I supposed to do?" Dean countered.

"Is that what we are? You save a vampire by making me believe the woman I love might be dead?"

"What do you want to hear, Sam? That I was wrong? Fine. I was wrong. Okay? But if you'd have just heard me out, if you'd have trusted me, all of this could have been avoided." Dean scolded.

"You didn't want me to trust you. You wanted me to trust Benny, and I can't do that."

"Right. Okay, well, then, what the hell do we do now?" Dean asked.

"That depends. It depends on you. On whether or not you're done with him."

"Well, honestly, I don't know." Dean admitted. Sarah jumped out of the way when she heard movement towards the door and hid behind some bushes.

Dean stormed out a moment later and took off quickly in the impala.

The next day…

"Are you sure you don't want to come shopping with me? I promise it won't take long. I just need to get the essentials, can't go around forever in this old shirt of D… and… uh… Bobby's old jacket." Sarah said stumbling over her words.

"No." Sam mumbled, staring at the TV.

"Alright then… Don't sit here and stew for too long, remember you promised to take me out for pizza. I can't tell you how long it's been since I could have pizza!" Sarah rambled as she walked to the door. "Oh, wait. Could I borrow your credit card? Cas didn't think to grab that for me either. Thank goodness my phone was in my pocket."

Sam sighed heavily and got up to get out his wallet. Sarah grabbed his credit card and placed it in her pocket before grabbing the keys to his car. "Thanks. I'll be back in a bit, okay?"

Sam gave her a nod. "Don't go too crazy. Try to ease back into things."

"Fine." Sarah said giving him an exaggerated sigh. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. Sarah opened it to reveal Amelia. "Amelia. Hey… I was just… leaving…" Sarah stammered before saying over her shoulder, "It's for you Sam."

Leaving quickly, Sarah rushed passed Amelia, looking back to see Sam's shocked and uncomfortable expression. "Good luck, Sambo." She whispered before climbing into the car.

She spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for some new clothes and hunter essentials before returning to the motel to find that Amelia's car was still there.

"I guess I'm on my own tonight." She mumbled, walking into the motel office to get another room. Hopefully one a good ways away from Sam's. She didn't need to hear them fighting or making up.

The next day, Sarah managed to get Sam to leave his motel room for some fresh air.

"See. Isn't this nice? Sunshine. Non-motel room smelling air." Sarah said as she led him down a path in the park.

"Yeah. It's nice." Sam mumbled, deep in thought.

"Come on, Sam. Tell me how I can help you? You've done so much for me." She said putting her hand on his arm.

"I don't know. I just need to think." Sam sighed sitting down on a bench. Sighing herself, she sat down next to him and sat quietly, staring off into space.

"Watching humanity – it never gets old, does it?" Castiel asked after appearing next to Sam on the bench, startling both Sam and Sarah.

"Cas? What are you doing here?" Sarah asked.

"Crowley has captured the angel Samandiriel. Dean and I found where he is being held but it is heavily guarded."

"Samandiriel?" Sam asked.

"I believe Dean calls him Alfie." Cas huffed.

"Oh." Sam replied. "Why do you need me?"

"Dean and I cannot rescue him alone. Not only is it heavily guarded by demons but it is warded against angels."

"Cas, I'd like to help but I just can't right now. I can't be in the same room as Dean." Sam grumbled.

"Sam, this sounds serious. Did you know this angel?" Sarah asked Sam concerned that he wasn't more willing to help.

"We ran into him a couple of months ago, after we found Kevin." Sam sighed. "Fine. I'll help but afterwards… I'm done. You will bring me back here, got it?" Sam directed at Cas.

Cas nodded then place his hands on both Sam and Sarah's foreheads.

Sarah looked back in shock, "Wait! I'm not going!" she cried out but it was too late. Cas was already teleporting them.

Author's note:

Hey everyone! Thanks for reading and reviewing. It means so much that people like my story. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am taking a brief hiatus because GISHWHES starts today and I will be devoting all of my energy to that. I plan to post the next update sometime next week after I've had time to come down from my GISHWHES high. :)


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"I got what we need." Cas said to Dean, who was across the room. Sarah quickly hid behind Sam.

"Well, it's about time." Dean said before turning to see Sam next to Cas. "What's he doing here?"

"Don't worry, Dean. Once we save Alfie, I'm out." Sam growled. Sarah froze behind Sam. She wasn't ready to face Dean yet.

"Oh, once "we" save Alfie. Don't hurt yourself, Sam. Cas and I can handle it." Dean spat.

"Not according to Cas." Sam jabbed.

"I told you we didn't need him." Dean growled at Castiel.

"We need _everything _and _everyone, _ Dean. And I need all of you, as you say, to stow your crap. Can you do that?" Cas yelled at both of them.

They just stood there looking at each other for a moment before Dean huffed and noticed that someone was behind Sam. He slowly reached for his gun.

Sam gave him an exasperated look, "What you gonna shoot me now?"

"Shut up, Sam. There's someone behind you." Dean said fully alert, moving closer.

Sam turned to look behind him and found only Sarah. Sam let out a breath. "Dean it's alright." He assured Dean. Then he placed his hand on Sarah's shoulder and softly said to her, "You can't run away anymore."

Taking in a deep breath, Sarah looked up at Sam and nodded before moving out from behind Sam. "Hello, Dean."

He stared back at her stunned. "Sarah? Is it really you?"

"Yep. Same old me." She replied as she awkwardly looked around the room.

"But… how? When I got back you looked… Sam said…"

"Cas healed me." Sarah said cutting him off, hating that he had seen her so sick.

"Oh." He mumbled, still staring at her.

"Kevin, you need to get to work on the demon bombs." Cas stated breaking the attention away from Sarah and Dean. "Sarah can help you."

Sarah broke eye contact with Dean and looked over at Cas. Sighing she started to walk over to the extremely tired prophet. "What can I do to help?"

Dean caught her arm and pulled her to look at him. "I'm glad you're better." He said before pulling her into a hesitant hug. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too." She whispered back before pulling away and continuing to walk toward Kevin. "I don't think we officially met. I'm Sarah Reynolds."

"Kevin Tran. Prophet." Kevin said tiredly. He showed her what materials to start grinding and began working on breaking another ingredient into pieces.

"I'm going to check the weapons in the impala." Dean said walking outside. Sam sighed and walked outside behind him.

"So… how long have you known Sam and Dean?" Kevin asked as he worked, stealing glances at her.

"I grew up with them. We've got a lot of history together." She said vaguely as she worked.

"Oh. So… uh… are you seeing anyone?" Kevin stuttered.

Sarah stopped her movements and slowly looked over at him. "Are you hitting on me? What are you, like 17?" she asked not even trying to hide her surprise.

Kevin looked back down at what he was doing, "19 actually."

"Well I'm not into the whole Mrs. Robinson thing. So you just continue focusing on deciphering that tablet." Sarah scolded.

Kevin sighed heavily. "That's all I ever do."

"Well let me give you some advice. Life in the supernatural world is hard and lonely. And it's full of disappointments. Get used to it."

"Boy you aren't you just a big ole ray of sunshine." Dean said sarcastically from behind her.

Sarah turned around to look at him. "That doesn't mean it's not true."

Dean's eyebrows furrowed. "Are you two almost done? We need to go."

"Just about." Kevin said as he refocused on the task.

They pulled up to an abandoned factory. Sam, Dean and Castiel got out of the impala. Sarah took a moment to savor the feel of being in the impala again. In the only place she's truly called home.

"So, there are four main points of warding—north, south, east and west—and four Enochian sigils, like this…" Castiel instructed as he drew a symbol on Sam's palm. "…that you need to destroy before I can enter."

Sarah stood there listening to Castiel but had this weird feeling like something was trying to push her back.

"Okay, so, what? We go in, take care of the hell mooks, and you extract the angel?" Dean asked, not noticing Sarah's confused look.

"Yes. After killing so many, I need to save at least this one." Cas admitted.

"Sounds like a plan." Sam stated.

"Yeah." Sarah mumbled, still trying to figure out what was going on with her.

"Okay." Dean said pulling out his demon killing knife. "Let's do this."

They turned to walk toward the factory. "Wait. Here." Cas said stopping them and handing his angel blade to Sam. "This doesn't just work on angels. It kills demons, too."

"Thanks, Cas." Sam marveled.

Sam and Dean lead the way to the side of the factory, looking for a way in. Sarah followed as close as she could, the weird feeling still trying to force her away and growing stronger as she got closer to the building.

Sam found a hiding place for her and him while Dean worked as bait to draw the guarding demon closer. Sarah watched as he followed Dean then was caught off guard by Sam and the angel blade.

"Well, not my most original work, but…" Dean said as he looked down at the now dead demon. Sam pulled a set of keys off the body and tossed them to Dean.

"You okay, Princess?" Dean asked sarcastically, seeing her surprised and horrified look.

"Hm?" she murmured snapping her eyes away from the body. "What? I'm fine."

"Sarah, if you're not feeling up to this.. I know it's been a while…" Sam snipped.

"I said, I'm fine. Just thought I saw something." She said pushing past him and ushering Dean to go inside.

Once inside, Sam found one of the Enochian sigils and used his can of spray paint to destroy it. Instantly, Sarah started to feel a little bit better.

"That's weird…" she whispered to herself.

After that, they split up. Sam and Sarah going one way. Dean another.

After a few minutes of walking, the weird feeling inside of Sarah lessened again. They reached another sigil and Sam used his can of spray to destroy it.

The feeling was almost gone now.

Distracted by the questions building inside of her, Sarah didn't notice the demon that had come up from behind them and grabbed Sam.

Sam quickly threw the demon to the floor and stabbed it with the angel blade. Just as Sam was about to growl at Sarah to pay attention, another demon attacked them. This time it went after Sarah. He easily knocked the iron pipe from her hands and jumped on top of her.

Struggling against him, she began to push his face with her hands. Before she knew what was happening, her hands began to glow slightly. The demon jumped back, screaming. Faint red handprints visible on his face.

"Sarah!" Sam yelled getting her attention and throwing the angel blade to her.

She snatched it from midair and plunged it into the demon. She looked over at Sam and saw a demon jump him from behind. Before she could run to his aide, Dean ran up and killed the demon with his knife.

"Thanks." Sam said to Dean, taking the angel blade back from Sarah. She in turn just stared down at the demon she had killed and the handprints still visible on his face.

"Come on." Dean grumbled.

They continued to search for the final sigil and could hear Alfie's screams.

"Alfie." Dean muttered.

Hearing footsteps approaching, they saw four demons running towards them on both sides. Sam and Dean snapped into action and tossed two demon bombs at both sets of demons. Dean grabbed Sarah's hand and pulled her behind him, to shield her from the blast.

"Whoa." Sarah said amazed at how the demon bombs disintegrated the demons on the spot.

They found the last sigil and Dean destroyed it quickly. As soon as the sigil was destroyed the last of the weird feeling inside of Sarah disappeared.

"All right, anytime now, Cas." Dean grumbled.

Castiel appeared beside him, breathing heavily.

"Cas! Hey! You okay?" Sam asked concerned.

"It must be the sigils. I'm not at full power." Cas groaned. Sarah moved to him concerned and grabbed his hand.

"Sam, Sarah, help me. Muss this crud." Dean instructed.

"No, wait! There's no time. Samandiriel won't last much longer." Cas stated.

Dean turned and tried to open the door to the room that Samandiriel was in.

"Cas. Here, take this." Sam said giving him the angel blade.

Something crossed over Cas's face and he covered his ears, shrinking away back toward the wall, pulling Sarah with him.

"Cas?" Sarah stammered, worried about his frightened behavior and the iron like grip he had on her hand.

"Dean, hung up. Come on!" Sam yelled. Dean continued to try and open the door.

"Dean, hurry!" Sarah yelled, as Cas pulled her to the ground with him.

Dean slammed a hand against the door. "All right. Plan B."

"We have a plan B?" Sam asked.

"Just do something!" Sarah growled trying to free her hand.

Dean flung himself against the door. It held firm. Sam followed his lead and soon both of them were hurtling against the door. Over and over again until the door finally gave way.

Sam and Dean barreled in and started fighting the demons in the room. Castiel finally snapped out of the horrifying nightmare he had been reliving and stumbled into the room. Sarah followed him in and grabbed a demon that was about to attack Dean. She traded a few blows with him before Dean punched the demon he was fighting and stabbed hers with the demon killing knife. Then turning quickly to stab the demon Sam was fighting.

He crouched down to the demon on the floor and was about to stab him when he said, "Wait! I know… I know things."

"Cas! Go!" Dean yelled. Cas and Samandiriel disappeared.

"Good, good. There's so much you don't know. You need me." The demon tried to reason.

"Yeah?" Dean muttered. The demon nodded. "Yeah, I don't think so." Dean stabbed the demon. "Let's go."

They ran outside as fast as they could to find Cas kneeling next to the impala, cradling Samandiriel's body.

"Cas! What the hell happened?" Sam exclaimed.

"He was compromised." Cas stated as if automatically. "He came at me. I killed him in self-defense."

"Cas, you okay?" Sam asked as blood started to trickle from his eyes. Sarah moved to wipe it but Cas moved away from her touch and wiped it himself.

"My vessel must have been damaged in the melee. I have to go. Samandiriel's remains belong in Heaven." Cas said crouching down before Samandiriel.

"Cas, wait." Dean said.

"Thank you all… for everything you've done." Cas said before disappearing.

"Cas!" Dean yelled out in frustration.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

They drove back to Rufus's cabin in silence. All of them mulling over the events of the past few days. Once back at the cabin, Sam began adding the new angel warding sigils to the walls. That weird feeling began creeping into Sarah again. This time the feeling was more intense.

"Okay. That should do it. Cas can't see or hear us now." Sam stated after finishing the last sigil. Sarah sat on the arm of the couch to steady herself from the sudden dizziness she was feeling.

"Okay, what the hell?" Dean growled out.

"I second that." Sarah added.

"I know." Sam agreed with them.

"I told you something was off with him since he got back from Purgatory." Dean grumbled. Sarah slid off the couch and made her way to the bathroom, unnoticed by the boys.

After splashing some water on her face and doing some deep breathing techniques, she was finally able to see straight again. It helped her to push past the weird feelings and put her focus back on what was going on around her. Slowly, she walked back toward the main room but stopped when she heard where the boys conversation had gone.

"She does make me happy, and she could be waiting for me if I went back. I'd be a very lucky man if she was. But now… with everything staring down at us, with all that's left to be done… I don't know." Sam said.

"Huh." Dean mumbled.

"Yeah."

"Well, I do know this… whatever you decide, decide. Both feet in or both feet out. Anything in between is what gets you dead." Dean said definitively.

"Yeah, I keep hearing that." Sam muttered. "I'm gonna… take a walk. Clear my head."

"That goes for you too, princess." Dean said after Sam was out the door, letting Sarah know that he knew she was listening in.

She walked into the room. "Sorry. I didn't want to interrupt."

"You alright? You look pale." Dean said, looking her over closely as she perched on the arm of the couch again. "I thought you said Cas healed you."

"He did. I'm fine. Just not used to this much excitement anymore." She breathed, not sure if she should tell him what was really going on with her.

"Do you think you should be doing so much so quickly after recovering?"

"It's not like I really had a choice. I was just trying to be there for Sam after you tricked him when Cas showed up and carted me to the fight." Sarah retorted. Dean rolled his eyes at her comment.

"So what, you want us to drop you somewhere?" Dean asked gruffly.

Sarah stared at him in confusion. "Do you want me to go?"

He sighed heavily. "Honestly, I don't really care."

"You don't?" Sarah asked skeptically.

"No. My year in purgatory helped to give me some clarity. There was no drama just survive."

Tears threatened to form in her eyes. "I see. Well you don't have to worry about any drama from me. If my year of slowly dying taught me anything, it's that life is too short to waste on whims of the heart. It's done nothing but give me pain. But now, I can do good in the world again and that's all I intend to do. Whether it's with you and Sam or not, that's what I'm going to do." Sarah said, lying. Not wanting to show Dean how much his comment hurt her.

"That's if Sam chooses to stay." Dean interjected sarcastically.

"Oh come off it. You know he will. He always chooses you over everything else. And you always choose him." Sarah snapped, unable to handle the frustration he was stirring in her and the still prominent weird feeling in her that was making her vision blurry again. "I need some air." She got off the couch and started for the door but felt another wave of dizziness sweep over her. "Um… could you open the door for me?" Dean gave her a confused look. "Just do it."

He huffed but stalked over to the door and opened it wide. Sweeping his arm out toward her while bowing slightly. "Your Majesty."

"God, you can be such a dick sometimes." She grumbled making her way out the door. His retort was to slam the door behind her. Taking a deep breath, she made her way from the porch over to the forest. The push from the angel warding lessening with every step. "Great. This is just great." She said walking completely into Sam.

"Sarah? What are you doing out here?" he asked

"I needed some air after my talk with Dean. Tell me how does he always manage to piss me off? Seriously! The first time we are alone to talk after a year and a half and he…. Grrr…. Tell me why I had to fall in love with him? To be destined for him?" Sarah rambled before punching a nearby tree. "OW! Dammit!"

"I don't know exactly what is up with him." Sam said taking her hand and looking it over. "He's more closed off than ever before. And this weird thing he has with Benny it's just… I don't know. We should go get some ice on this. It's already starting to swell."

Sarah pulled her hand away from him, "It's fine."

"Whatever Dean said, you know he didn't mean it. He never does." Sam said putting a hand on her shoulder.

"You don't understand. I can't go back there right now." She said, moving away a little and turning her back to him.

"What is it then?" Sam asked, watching her closely. She leaned against the same tree she had hit a few moments earlier. "Why can't you go back to the cabin?"

"Their pushing me away."

"What is pushing you away?" Sam asked moving around to look at her face.

Sarah sighed. "The angel warding sigils."

"What? Come on. What's the real reason?"

"That is the reason." Sarah said exasperated. Sam gave her a confused look. She rolled her eyes and said, "I think… Cas did something to me when he healed me. At that factory, it was as if I was being pushed away from it. And then inside the factory, my skin crawled and I can't even describe the weird feeling I had. Well that is until we destroyed the four angel warding sigils."

"What? Really? Is that why you freaked out a little outside the factory?" Sam asked, thinking over their assault on the factory.

"Yeah. Well the surprise from that amongst other things." She said mumbling the last part, starting to feel tired.

"What other things?" Sam asked.

"I'll… tell you later…" she whispered, feeling overwhelmed with exhaustion. "Too tired." She closed her eyes and slumped against the tree.

"Sarah? Sarah?" Sam called out, catching her before she could fall to the ground. "Dammit." He picked her up and started back toward the cabin, but the closer he got harder it seemed for him to move forward. Like the air was too thick to move through. Pushing through, he finally managed to get back inside the cabin.

"What happened?" Dean asked as Sam set Sarah down on the couch.

"Help me get rid of these angel warding sigils." He answered quickly moving to grab one of the spray cans and strike over the sigil on the door.

Dean followed Sam's lead and grabbed the other can.

A little while later, Dean and Sam sat on either side of the couch with Sarah, still sleeping, sitting between them. Sam placed a bowl of food down on the table in front of Dean, causing Sarah to stir.

"Ugh… What is that smell?" Sarah murmured, opening her eyes. "Is that chili?" She asked, shooting forward and swiping the bowl from Dean's hand.

"Do you mind?" Dean grumbled, staring at her in shock.

She inhaled deeply above the bowl. "Oh, chili. It's been so long." She said before swiping Deans fork and digging it into the bowl and taking a big bite. "Mmmm…"

"Geez. I thought you hated chili." Dean commented, staring at her in shocked awe.

After taking another big bite full, she said, "You know the old saying, 'You don't know what you're missing till it's gone.' Well I couldn't have anything like this for the last year and I can't tell you how many times I dreamt of this and pizza and beer and …" She trailed off as if in a trance.

"Alrighty then." Dean said sarcastically, taking another bowl of chili from Sam and snapping Sarah back to reality.

"That reminds me. Sam, you promised me pizza. Don't forget." She said, pinning him with her gaze.

Sam smirked, "I won't. I won't."

Dean cleared his throat, brining Sarah and Sam's attention away from each other and back to him. "So, you gonna tell us what's up with you?"

Sighing, Sarah began to play with her chili as she explained to the boys about the feeling she got from the angel sigils, the new ability to see demons in their true forms and also about being able to burn them with her hands.

"So… these new abilities and side effects… just showed up?" Dean asked trying to work out what was going on.

"Yep. That's why I kind of freaked out a little outside the factory. I was dealing with that weird pushing feeling and then seeing what a demon really looked like… it was almost too much to handle so soon after returning to the game."

"You said you think Cas did something to you." Sam interjected.

"Well that's all I can think of that would be able to do this to me. It's too bad he's now gone awol. I have quite a few questions for him." Sarah replied.

"You and me, both." Dean added.


	20. Chapter 20

Sorry it's been a little while since I've updated. I've been dealing with major writer's block on this story lately.

Chapter 20

A week and a half. That's how long Sarah lasted with the boys before determining it would be better to leave them alone for a while. Sam had closed himself off to her and Dean. He would barely talk to her and wouldn't talk about what had happened with Amelia. After growing so much closer to him over the last year, it pained her to know that he was drifting so far away from her.

And then there was Dean. He had changed so much over the last year and a half. She didn't think it was possible but he had more issues than ever before. Plus a major case of PTSD. It was clear that he really didn't want her around anymore. But what wasn't clear was why. She couldn't figure out if his feelings had really changed that much or if he was afraid of something. What was clear, was that Sam and Dean needed to work out their problems on their own.

So, she went her own way, promising to call them if she figured out what Cas had done to her. And promising to call if she needed them.

She traveled around for a while. Taking on cases as she did. A haunting here. A monster there. Anything to keep herself busy.

She had just finished with a poltergeist a few towns over and had stopped in a town called Farmington Hills for the night. That's how she ended up at a bar in Michigan. A bar that was swarming with people dressed in medieval costumes.

"Hey, Princess, you wouldn't happen to know where a lonely knight could scabbard his sword, would you? " a drunk man dressed as a knight asked as he leaned on the bar next to her.

"Not interested." She said in a tired voice, not turning to look at him.

"What's a princess like you doing in a dungeon like this?" He slurred with a wink, placing his hand on her shoulder, not paying attention to what she said.

"Look buddy, you have exactly five seconds to walk away before I brake that hand. Got it?" she said still not looking at him.

"They say a knight is always as hard as his armor." He said sliding his hand down her back.

"5." She mumbled, starting to move to grab his hand.

"Letholdus. I do believe that this fair maiden has asked you to leave."

"Yes, Your Highness." The drunk said quickly removing his hand and walking away after a bow.

Sarah turned to see who had come to her aide and saw a pretty girl with red hair standing there wearing a pretty red dress.

"Um… Thank you."

"No problem. Sorry about him. He's just a little full of himself since we stopped an invading orc party today." The red head said, taking a seat on the stool next to Sarah. "I'm Carrie. Carrie Heinlein."

"Sarah Reynolds." Sarah said shaking Carries hand. "What is going on here? I feel like I've been teleported back to the renaissance."

"And that you have. It's the annual LARPing festival called Moondoor. It's about four kingdoms battling for the forever crown. It's tots fun."

"Sounds like it. What's LARPing? That sounds familiar." Sarah asked.

"Live Action Role Playing."

"Oh, right. I've seen that before. This one looks like more fun than that one."

"Oh yeah? What one did you see before?" Carrie asked.

"It was a Supernatural convention. I ended up at one with some old friends by accident." Sarah smiled sadly at the counter as she remembered Dean and Sam's expressions at seeing all the people role-playing as them. "But it wasn't really our scene."

"Supernatural? I'm not familiar with that one."

"It's from a series of books about monsters and ghosts and a couple of demon hunters." Sarah relayed in a trance. Carrie got a look on her face, like something about that struck accord with her. "Well, anyways, tell me about Moondoor."

Carrie spent the next hour telling Sarah all about Moondoor. That Carrie was the queen of Moondoor and would be defending her crown that weekend in a battle between the four kingdoms.

"Listen to me go on and on, probably boring you to death." Carrie apologized.

"No, you're fine. It sounds like fun. Plus, it's nice talking to someone who isn't mad at me, for a change."

"Mad at you? Now who could be mad at you?"

"It's a long story. Much too long for tonight." Sarah responded, quickly realizing that she may have had a little too much to drink and was now talking a little too freely. "Actually, I should be going. It was great meeting you Carrie."

"You too." Carrie said, looking slightly confused at Sarah's abrupt change. "And if you're looking for something fun to do, you should come by Moondoor. I'll hook you up with a good title." She added with a smile.

"Thanks." Sarah said before leaving and heading back to her motel room. Once there, she began searching on her computer for another case. Something that would keep her busy. But her mind kept thinking over Carrie's offer and eventually found herself on the Moondoor website.

A few days later…

Sarah was walking through Moondoor, looking in at some of the shops. Making her rounds to check that things were going ok.

"Good Morrow, Lady Sarah." A girl dressed as an elf said as Sarah passed her.

"Good Morrow." Sarah responded. "Have you by chance seen Her Majesty this morning?"

"I believe I saw her training new recruits by her tent, but that was quite some time ago."

Sarah thanked her and made her way to see if the queen was still at her tent but it was just as quiet there as the last time she'd looked in. Making her way back through the camp, an unsettling feeling started to set in. Finally she found Boltar, one of the Queen's trusted guards. She made her way over to him and the man that he was talking to. After getting closer, she noticed who the man was.

"Dean." Sarah whispered, stopping in her tracks. After Boltar walked away, she watched as Dean did a quick scan of the area, "What are you doing here Winchester?"

Dean looked over at her surprised, "Me? What about you?"

"I asked you first." She said trying very hard not to let her eyes roam down to what he was wearing.

He sighed, "We're here on a case. What about you? You here because of the weird incidents?"

"Um… No." She said looking down.

"Then why?" he asked then caught on, "You're here LARPing, aren't you?"

"So what if I am." She retorted, looking up to see him smiling. It felt like it had been forever since she'd seen him smile. "Besides, it seems like you are too."

"One, I'm blending in and two, I look good." He said proudly.

Just then, Sam walked up. "What? Sam not get the memo about the period costumes?" Sarah whispered to Dean causing him to chuckle.

"Nice outfit." Sam said to Dean, not noticing Sarah.

"You know you love it." Dean retorted.

"Right, well…" Sam started to say but stopped when he saw Sarah. "Hey, Sarah. What are you doing here?" he asked giving her a hug.

"I was here having fun but then you two bozos showed up."

"Well, while you two were, uh, playing dress up, I found out… that the mark." Sam said getting back to business and pulling out a piece of paper.

"Belongs to the shadow Orcs." Dean finished for Sam, with a smug smile.

"Yeah. And their using fairy magic." Sam stated handing Dean the paper that explained about the Tree of Pain symbol.

"Tree of Pain?" Sarah read while leaning close to Dean.

"Awesome." Dean added.

"Whoever gets marked gets ganked." Sam explained.

"All right, how do we stop it?" Dean asked, looking over at Sarah, realizing how close she was still.

"Find whoever cast the spell, and take them out. No more whammy, no more marks. No more marks, no more dead bodies."

"Okay, well, perfect. Our, uh, pal Boltar the chatty is getting the, uh, Shadow Orc prisoner. We're gonna do a little prisoner exchange, try to draw the king out of hiding." Dean said before smiling and adding, "It was my idea… Where's Charlie?"

"She was with you." Sam responded.

"No, I sent her to you." Dean snipped walking off toward the queen's tent.

"Who's Charlie?" Sarah asked Sam.

"Charlie? Your highness?" Dean called out opening the flap to the queen's tent.

"Charlie's the queen." Sam explained.

"No, Carrie's the queen. She's the one that got me to check this place out." Sarah reasoned.

"Dean and I know her as Charlie. She helped us get the angel tablet from Dick."

"Oh." Sarah mumbled as Dean reemerged from the tent.

"You know what – she's got my phone. Try it." Dean stated to Sam.

After placing the call, Sam shook his head. "No answer."

"Great." Dean muttered. "Ok, Let's go find Boltar. We have to find Charlie before anything happens to her." They started to walk towards the stalks when Dean stopped and looked back at Sarah. "Look, princess, you should stay here. Wouldn't want to get in the way of your LARPing fun."

"Oh can it, Dean. I'm in this now. Carrie… Charlie… whatever her name is, she's a friend and I'm not going to let anything happen to her." Sarah asserted, moving passed him.

They met up with Boltar and the Orc and after a minor argument with Boltar about Sarah going with them, they set out to meet with the King of the Orcs.

"So, uh… how have you been?" Sarah asked Sam as they walked.

"We've been fine." Sam answered, seeming to be deep in thought.

"No. How are you doing? Just you." Sarah clarified.

He looked over at her. "I'm fine. Really."

Sarah sighed. "Alright."

"So why are you really here Sarah?" Sam asked.

Sarah looked up at Dean, walking a head of them. "The truth?"

"No, I want you to lie to me. Of course the truth." Sam said sarcastically. Sarah looked back down at her feet. "Sarah, what is it?"

"Do you know what this weekend is?" she asked.

"It's..." Sam said, running through his head what she was asking. Then he set his jaw, looking over at her.

"I just didn't want to be alone." She admitted. "We're here."

They caught up to Dean. "I swear, if anything's happened to her..." Dean muttered to them, surprising Sarah at his level of concern.

"Dude, we checked all the tents. We'll talk to these guys. We'll find her." Sam assured.

"Ca-caw! Ca-caw!" Monty, the orc they had captured, signaled.

"Ca-caw! Ca-caw!" another orc signaled back, before three of them walked into the clearing.

"Greetings, heretics." Boltar said.

"You should kneel before me, cur." The Orc King bellowed.

"All right, why don't you let me…" Dean tried to say but was cut off by Boltar.

"Silence! Now, before we exchange, a few announcements."

The Orc King took out his fake teeth and moved closer to Boltar.

"Um, there is a peewee-league soccer playoff game tomorrow on the alpha field. We don't want to freak out the mundanes, so we got to move the Battle of Kingdoms to the beta field." Boltar said in a more everyday voice, than his LARPing voice.

"All right. That's it. You know what? I'm gonna do this the old-fashioned way." Dean said talking over the others and drawing his gun.

"Dean, don't." Sarah warned.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Come on." Sam sighed.

"No, I'm …"

"I told you there are…" Boltar started to yell.

"Shut up." Dean growled, cutting off Boltar's rant. He walked over to the Orc King and raised his gun. "All right. I need real answers. This here is a real gun, see?" He then shot at the ground.

The orc's and Boltar all jumped back.

"Whoa! Whoa!" the Orc King yelled holding up his hands. "Hold! Hold! Geez!"

"Now, start talking. Where's the queen?!" Dean growled, pointing his gun at the Orc King.

"I don't know!"

"Yeah, well, your little family crest there tells a different story, pal." Dean growled back.

"Dean. Stop it." Sarah warned moving closer. Sam reached out and pulled her back.

"This?"

"Yeah."

"Uh, I got sick last month after this thing just appeared..." The Orc King explained, pulling off his right gauntlet and pushing up his sleeve to reveal the Tree of Pain symbol on his forearm, "on my arm. I thought it looked really cool, so I turned it into my family crest. I mean, after my dermatologist said it wasn't malignant."

"Dean, he's not our guy. He's just another vic." Sam interjected.

"My name is Max Hilby. I'm an attorney. I have no idea where the queen is, but if you let me go right now, I won't press charges. I promise. Um..." he said, before taking off his fake ears and holding them and his gauntlet out to DEAN. "Here. Uh, take them. Please."

"Go. Go! Go!" Dean grunted at the orcs. They quickly run away. "What? What?"

"Is the queen really in danger?" Monty asked, taking out his fake orc teeth. Dean nodded. "Okay, there was something odd down by the creek. It's this weird tent. It's not one of ours. It's kind of creepy."

"Why are you being so helpful all of a sudden?" Sam asked.

"Look, I harbor an epic crush on the queen. Maybe you could put in a good word for me when you find her." Monty said.

"I don't think you're her type." Dean said, walking in the direction that Monty had shown them. Sam, Sarah and Boltar followed.

"What? You mean she's not into Orcs?" Monty called after them.

After a few minutes of walking Dean said, "Why don't you take off, Bolty? We got it from here."

"A handmaiden, a Maid of Honor and a time traveler rescue the queen? I think not, kind lady." Boltar replied.

"Look, this isn't a game, Boltar. The queen, our friend, is in real danger. You could get hurt." Sam snapped.

"I will not leave my queen in peril." Boltar asserted. They come to a plain canvas tent with two lights burning on long poles outside. "Look there."

"We haven't checked that tent." Dean mumbled.

They approached the tent and enter to find Charlie sitting on the edge of the bed, kissing another woman. Dean cleared his throat to get Charlie's attention.

"Dudes. If the tent is rockin', don't come a-knockin'." Charlie stated, a little flustered.

"No, it's him! My master! Run!" the other woman yelled out. Dean, Sam and Sarah all turn to look at who she was pointing to, only to find Boltar standing there, with a crazed look on his face.

Sam, Dean and Sarah all drew their guns.

"No guns in Moondoor, gentlemen. Gilda, if you please?" Boltar said, oldly calm.

Looking sad, Gilda makes a hand motion. There is the sound of a chicken clucking and the guns turn into feathers which flutter to the ground.

"Well, now what, Gerry?" Dean asked.

"My name is Boltar the Furious!" he yelled. "My plan was, after getting rid of all of my competition, to win the battle tomorrow, convincing the queen that I should be her king." Charlie rolled her eyes at him. "But then you two idiots showed up, and I was forced to improvise. Rescue the damsel in distress from Orcs, become king, kill you both – that'll work, too."

"So why did you go from hobbling to murder?" Sam asked.

"Greyfox and Thargrim became part of the honor guard. They got close to the queen, but they did it by breaking the rules – paying off other players with real money, rather than Moondoor currency. They were cheating."

"Oh, and using magic isn't?" Dean quipped.

"Magic is a part of Moondoor." Boltar replied.

"What is your problem? Why would you hurt people? This is just a game." Charlie inserted.

"There is no game! There is only Moondoor! I came here to be different, to get away from my crappy life, to be a hero, and guess what." Boltar yelled.

"What, you were a loser in the real world, and you're a loser here? Shocker." Dean taunted.

"Dean." Sarah warned grabbing his arm.

"Would a loser track down a real book of spells and compel a fairy to do his bidding?" Boltar asked.

"It depends. How'd you get it?" Sam asked.

"eBay."

"Look. It doesn't have to be like this, Boltar. Just hand over the book of spells. We can work this out." Sarah said calmly moving forward a little trying to defuse some of the tension.

"This will all work out..." Boltar replied, picking up a fake sword. " after I remove you from the playing field and wipe her memory. Gilda?"

Gilda sighed and closed her eyes. The fake sword in Boltar's hand turned into a real one. Sam and Dean move quickly. Sam grabbed Sarah and pulled

her to the side as he grabbed for a sword. Dean picked up a fake sword and began to attack Boltar.

"Gilda, the big one." Boltar yelled, returning Dean's attack.

Gilda regretfully made a hand motion and a suit of armor grabbed Sam around the neck from behind. Sarah dropped the knife she had and began trying to free Sam before he was choked to death.

"Ohh!" Sam grunted.

Charlie charged at Boltar with a fake sword. He hurled her onto the bed. Dean swung at Boltar with a fake sword, but Boltar's sword cut Dean's in half. Gilda goes to Charlie. Sam and Sarah continued to struggle against the suit of armor.

"He can't stop him. The book – you must destroy it." Gilda stressed.

Dean punched Boltar and a book fell to the floor. Charlie dashed for the book.

"Hey, Gerry." Charlie called out, holding up a dagger. "I'm the one who saves damsels in distress around here." Then she plunged her knife into Gerry's magic book and a bright light burst from it. Instantly, the suit of armor fell to the ground releasing its hold on Sam. Sam in turn fell right into Sarah, who just barely managed to keep both of them from falling to the ground themselves.

"No!" Boltar yelled. His sword turned back into a fake one. He tried to hit Dean with it again but Dean caught it and took it away from him before knocking him out.

"Are you okay?" Charlie asked rushing over to Gilda.

"I'm free of the spell. You saved me. The Hollow Forest is forever in your debt. I must return to those green hills now. I will take my former master with me. He must face a fairy tribunal for his sins." Gilda explained.

"Wait." Charlie called out, pulling Gilda to her and kissing her. Gilda then disappeared in a shimmer of light. Boltar's body then sank into the floor as it disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Call me... maybe?"

After a few moments of stunned silence, Sam began to cough a little as he rubbed his neck.

"You okay, Sambo?" Sarah asked, trying to get a look at his neck.

"I'm fine." He said brushing her off.

"Sarah?!" Charlie cried out all of a sudden. "You're here! With Sam and Dean. Their… um… old friends of mine." Charlie babbled.

"Charlie, it's okay. We know Sarah." Sam assured.

"You do?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah, the boys and I go back almost 20 years, right boys?"

"Really?" Charlie asked, "Wait. Is this the Sarah?" she added to Dean. Sarah's head snapped up to look at Charlie.

Dean looked up awkwardly, "We should be getting back to camp. I bet their all looking for their Queen."

"Right. We probably should." Sarah said, tearing her eyes away from him. She quickly walked out of tent, followed by the others. Her heart pounded quickly as she walked, thinking over the fact that Dean had talked about her to Charlie.

When they neared camp, Sarah turned to Charlie. "I'll be in my tent preparing for battle, Milady." Then she strode away from the group.

Sarah took her time changing into her battle attire before rejoining the group to find that both boys had changed into their regular clothes.

"So what's next for you, Charlie? New town? New identity?" Sam asked as Sarah approached.

"If the last 24 hours have taught me anything, it's that escaping isn't what it used to be. No more replacement characters for me. I got to face reality from now on. Sadly, reality actually includes monsters, but what are you gonna do? If I can ever be of help to you guys, let me know." Charlie answered.

"Will do. And you, uh... you're good?" Dean asked.

"Apart from the fact that you blocked me from banging a fairy, and I'm about to go lose my crown in battle, thanks to my army being decimated? Yeah. Totally good." Charlie laughed. She started to leave but turned back, holding her hand up in a Vulcan salute. "Smell you later, bitches. You coming Sarah?"

"Yeah. I'll be right there." Sarah replied, looking up at the boys. Charlie nodded and walked away. "It was good to see you boys."

"So you're staying?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. I promised Charlie that I would help with the battle." Sarah admitted. "You two take care. Okay?" she gave both of them one last look then followed after Charlie.

They watched her go before Dean cleared his throat and said, "So, what's, uh... what's next? 'Cause no fun, right? Look, before you say anything, I – I – I get it. No amount of fun is gonna help you get over what you gave up. You just, uh... you need time, right?"

"Yeah. Thanks. And you're right. Having fun won't help me. It'll help both of us. Shall we?" Sam said, cracking a smile.

They spent the afternoon battling for the forever crown with all the other LARPer's in Moondoor. Sarah watched in amazement as Sam and Dean let loose and finally had some fun. She hadn't seen either of them smile or laugh this much in so long that she honestly thought they we incapable of it anymore.

After winning the battle for the followers of the Moon and saving Charlie's crown, Charlie grabbed Sarah to help her get ready for the victory party. She helped Charlie get into her royal red gown and crown. Charlie then insisted on Sarah wearing a similar green dress before they returned to the party.

When they arrived, the trumpeters blew their horns signifying that the Queen had arrived. Sarah walked a little behind Charlie, feeling uncomfortable being in the spotlight. Especially when she saw the look that Dean was giving her.

"Wow, Sarah. Just wow." Sam said as she approached him and Dean.

"Yeah, Sarah, you look beautiful." Dean added.

"Thanks, boys." She said blushing a little at the compliment. "So… uh… where's the beer… I mean mead?" Sam chuckled at her and went off to get them some drinks, leaving Sarah and Dean alone. "So… Dean. It was fun out there today. Did you ever think you'd be in a battle that didn't end in bloodshed?"

Dean smirked. "It was fun today."

Sam returned with their beers a few minutes later and they preceded to drink, joke and horse around till the early morning hours of the next morning.

"Ok, I think it's time to call it a night." Sarah slurred, getting to her feet. Sam barely lifted his head to say good bye. "Good night Sambo." She said giving him a pat on the shoulder as she passed him.

"You gonna snub me?" Dean asked catching up with her.

"Of course." Sarah joked, playfully punching his arm and throwing herself off balance.

"Whoa there." Dean said acting quickly to keep her from falling. He then put his arm around her shoulders and held her close to him. "I think I should make sure you make it back to your tent in one piece. How much did you have to drink tonight?"

"Are you trying to say that I'm drunk?" Sarah asked indignantly pushing away from him to walk on her own. "I can handle my liquor just fine."

Dean kept his arm hovering by her as she set a determined look on her face and tried to concentrate on walking straight. It didn't take but a moment for her to stumble and fall back against him. "Sure you can." He whispered, smiling down at her.

"You're warm." Sarah murmured against his shoulder as they continued to walk. They walked like that for a minute before she jerked forward and into a tent.

Dean stood there confused for a second before peeking his head into the tent. "Sarah?" he called out, as he took in the look of the smaller tent. It had a cot on one side, a small table and mirror on the other and a dressing screen in the back.

"Have a seat!" she called out from behind the screen.

"Everything ok?" he asked as he took a seat on the cot.

"Yep! Now close your eyes."

His brow furrowed a little in confusion. "Why?"

"I've got a surprise for you." She said simply.

"What kind of surprise?" he asked warily.

"Just a surprise! Geez! Now close your eyes!" she exclaimed.

He sighed and closed his eyes. "Fine."

"Are they closed?"

"Yes." Dean said exasperated.

"Good. Now keep them closed." She said before making her way out from behind the screen in just her slip. She silently walked over to him and whispered, "Happy Birthday." Before leaning down and kissing him. He reacted instantly to her kiss. Pulling her closer. Sarah pushed him back a little so that she was able to climb on the bed and straddle his lap, deepening the kiss even more.

After a few intense moments, Dean pulled back so they could catch their breaths and leaned his head against her forehead. "Sarah… I don't know if this is a good idea…"

Sarah leaned forward and placed another kiss on his lips. "Let's not worry about what will happen later. Let's just have tonight. Let's celebrate our birthdays together for once." She said while placing kisses along his jaw and neck. "Stay with me tonight."

Dean pulled her closer and flipped them so that he was on top of her before reclaiming her lips again.

The next morning, Sarah woke up to find that Dean was back in his street clothes and sitting in front of her dressing table writing a note.

"Morning." Sarah said getting up from the bed and startling him. She pulled on the slip she'd worn the night before then disappeared behind the dressing curtain. "What time is it?"

"It's… uh… still early." He stammered.

"I guess you and Sam are gonna be heading out soon. Do you know where you'll be heading next?" she asked as she got dressed into her own street clothes.

"Uh… yeah. Sam's packing the car up right now. But I'm not sure yet where we'll be headed." He explained tentatively like he was waiting for her to go crazy on him.

"Well thank you for staying long enough for me to say goodbye." She said walking out from behind the curtain, back in her normal hunting attire and holding her bag.

"Should we maybe talk about last night?" Dean asked, as he watched her pack a couple of items she had around the tent into her bag.

"What's there to talk about? We enjoyed each other's company for the evening. That's all it needs to be." She stated.

"Really. Is that how you really feel?" Dean asked unbelievingly. "Something just doesn't seem right about that."

"What? I promised you no more drama and I meant it." Sarah replied. "Look, we've tried this thing between us before and it never seems to work out, so why don't we just leave last night as a good memory and move on."

"You can really do that? Just move on. Not want anything more. I'm sorry but I find that really hard to believe."

"Hey, as long as we look at this for exactly what it was. Just sex. Then there's no reason for me to make it anything more." Sarah answered, hoping that he couldn't see her bluffing. She didn't want to see this as just sex but knew that he would pull away again if she let on that she wanted more.

"So I can go out there and find another girl to have sex with and that wouldn't bother you?" he tested.

Sarah looked away from him for a second, hiding her true emotions before saying, "As long as she's not another monster trying to get you to father more monster children. Then I couldn't care less who you do."

"Wow. You really have changed haven't you." Dean said.

"Yep." She said simply grabbing her bag off the bed, before noticing something on the table. "Is that Starbucks?"

Dean looked over at the table, "Oh yeah. I got you your coffee as my way of saying Happy Birthday." He said picking it up and handing it to her.

"Thanks! That was nice of you but I think we both kinda got our Happy Birthday's last night." She said with a smile before taking a sip of her coffee and noticing that it was her favorite kind.

They made their way out to the parking lot and found Sam.

"Thanks for staying boys. It was a lot of fun getting to play around with you two again. I've missed seeing both of you laugh." Sarah said pulling both of them into hugs as she spoke.

"It was nice." Sam said before reaching into his pocket. "Here, I got you something."

Sarah looked down at the small wrapped present in Sam's hand. "You don't need to give me anything, Sam."

"Sure I do." Sam said firmly as Sarah took the present and opened it.

She pulled out a simple Celtic style cross necklace with green gems. "Oh, Sambo! It's beautiful! Thank you!" she exclaimed before pulling him into a hug.

"Also, I'd like you to ride with us." He added. Dean gave him a weird look over Sarah's head. "We'd like that. Wouldn't we Dean."

Dean paused before saying, "Of course we would."


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

A few days after they'd left Moondoor…

Sarah got up early one morning to take in a long run before meeting up with the boys for breakfast. She was finding hard to keep up her 'no care' attitude with Dean and she'd only been around him for a few days. So she turned her morning run into her time to center and prepare herself to be around him.

She was just about to run back into the motel parking lot when she saw the impala speed past her with three passengers.

"What the…" she mumbled coming to a stop and pulling her phone out of the arm strap. Turning to look back at where the boys had just fled she saw to see a red-headed woman talking to the motel manager before she used her fingers like claws and killed him. When the manager fell to the ground, Sarah was able to see what the woman really was. A demon.

Quickly, she turned back the way she had just come from and dashed behind a nearby diner as she dialed Dean's number.

After getting Dean's voicemail, she tried Sam's number.

"Sarah." Sam stated answering the phone.

"Sam! What the hell's going on?" she huffed into the phone.

"Something happened. Stay away from the motel till I call you back."

"Yeah, I saw the demon. Be careful." Sarah said before Sam hung up. "Oh, boys… what have trouble have you gotten into this time." She whispered, leaning against a nearby wall.

She waited a while then circled back to the motel and checked that the demon had gone before quickly running to her room to gather her things and change out of her running clothes. She then checked the boys room and grabbed the items they'd left behind, including Dean's phone.

Not long after that Sam sent her a text.

_Meet us at Charlie C's burger joint. – Sam_

_ K. U gonna tell me what happened? – Sarah_

_ I think we just met our grandfather… - Sam_

_ He's back again? Can't that guy stay dead? – Sarah_

_ Not that one… - Sam_

_ Oh? – Sarah_

Sarah walked into Charlie C's and easily found Sam and Dean sitting at a table with another attractive young man. She approached slowly, trying not to startle any of them.

"Henry Winchester. It's a pleasure." The young man said holding out his hand to Sam.

"Sam." Sam said shaking Henry's hand.

"Hello, Sam." Henry said before holding his hand out towards Dean.

Dean picked up a basket of food from the tray in front of Sam and set it down in front of Henry. "Dinner." He said curtly.

"This is Dean." Sam explained.

"Right."

"I hope you boys remembered to get me something to eat." Sarah said approaching the table, startling Henry. She grabbed a fry off of Dean's plate.

"Hey, yours is over there." Dean grumbled, pointing at another basket of food on his other side.

"And this is Sarah." Sam relayed to a very confused Henry.

"Do I have a granddaughter too?"

Dean choked on his burger and coughed out a "No."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Not by blood, anyways."

"She's a friend." Dean clarified.

"Well, I seem to have forgotten my manners. Ms…" He said extending his hand towards her.

"Reynolds. Sarah Reynolds." Sarah replied taking his hand.

"Well, Ms. Reynolds. I'm Henry Win…"

"Winchester." Sarah finished for him, shaking his hand quickly. "I know. I hope your better than their other grandfather."

"Well, this has been touching. How about we figure out how to clean up your mess, huh?" Dean said sarcastically.

Henry gave them a hesitant look as he glanced over to Sarah. "I don't think this is a matter that should be discussed in the presence of your female companion."

"It's okay, Henry. You can speak freely in front of her." Sam assured.

Henry thought for a moment then said, "Abaddon. She must be stopped."

"How come she didn't die when I stabbed her?" Dean asked, Sarah stopped mid bite to look over at him, shocked.

"Because demons can't be killed by run-of-the-mill cutlery. At the very least, you'd need an ancient demon-killing knife of the Kurds." Henry replied sounding annoyed.

Dean reached into his jacket and pulled his knife out slightly and said, "That's what this is."

"Where'd you get that?" Henry asked.

Dean shoved the knife back into his jacket before sarcastically saying, "Demon gave it to me. We've been around this block so many times."

"It didn't work on the demon I saw at the motel?" Sarah asked, still shocked.

"Nope." Dean said popping the 'p'.

"Now, that portal or whatever it was you came through – is it still open?" Sam asked.

"I highly doubt it. Why?" Henry answered.

"I'm just thinking if we can't kill this Abaddon…" Sam said.

"… maybe we can shove her back where she came from. How did you do it?" Dean finished for him.

"It's a blood sigil. Blood leads to blood. Or their next of kin." Henry explained.

"But Abaddon came through it, also, right? So can you create this blood sigil again?" Sam asked.

"My blood, an angel feather, tears of a dragon, a pinch of the sands of time – I – I would need those and... at least a week for my soul to recharge, but, yes, it's possible." Henry replied.

"You tapped the power of your soul to get here? I thought only angels could do that." Sam pondered.

"You should know this. What level are you all?" Henry asked.

"What level?" Dean asked confused.

"Level of knowledge. You're Men of Letters, correct?" Henry asked looking at all three of them.

"I'm a little rusty on my boy bands. Men of what?" Dean asked confused.

"Men of Letters, like your father, who taught you our ways. And Ms. Reynolds…"

"Sarah." She corrected him.

"I assume you are also a part of the Men of letters." Henry stated.

"Our father taught us how to be hunters. All three of us." Sam interjected.

Henry started to laugh. "You're not. Are you? Hunters? Well, hunters are... Hunters are apes. You're supposed to – you're legacies."

"Legacies of what?" Dean asked frustrated.

Henry looked at all of them for a moment, realizing that they didn't know anything about the Men of Letters. "Nevermind about that. I need you to get me to Normal, Illinois."

"What? No. Not until you give us some answers." Dean growled.

"I can't give you any until I see what happened to Illinois and see what went wrong." Henry retorted.

Dean was about to say something else but Sarah placed her hand on his arm, "Dean. Calm down. Let's go and see if we can figure out what all is going on. Okay?"

He looked down at his half eaten burger and let out big sigh. "Fine." He then got up and headed for the door. The others all following behind him.

They pulled up to the building in Normal, Illinois that Henry had instructed Dean to take him to.

"What's going on here?" Henry asked as he looked at the door to a comic book store. There is a barely visible symbol carved into it that Henry lightly touches. "No."

"All right, well, this was enlightening." Dean stated, clapping his hands once. "Let's hit the road, huh?"

"Give him a minute, Dean." Sam said.

"We just spent four hours driving, okay? All he did was stare out the window and request Pat Boone on the radio. He had his time."

"It's just a façade, a way to rook our enemies into believing we are housed elsewhere." Henry said still staring at the door.

"Okay, enough with the decoder talk. How about you tell us what this whole "Men of Letters" business is, or you're on your own." Dean demanded.

"It's none of your concern." Henry replied.

"Why, because we're hunters? What do you have against us?" Dean asked.

"Aside from the unthinking, unwashed, shoot-first-and-don't-bother-to-ask-questions-late r part, not much, really." Henry spat.

"Whoa. You don't even know us." Sarah interjected.

"You know what? Wait a second. We're also John's children." Sam added.

"You're more than that actually. My father and his father before him were both Men of Letters, as John and you two should have been. We're preceptors, beholders, chroniclers of all that which man does not understand. We share our findings with a few trusted hunters… the very elite. They do the rest."

"So you're like Yodas to our Jedis." Dean said, Sarah rolled her eyes at him, especially when she saw Henry's blank expression. "Never mind. You'll get there."

"Okay, but if you guys were such a big deal, then why haven't we- or anyone we know- ever heard of you?" Sam asked.

"Abaddon." Henry said simply before opening the door to the comic book shop and walking in.

"Henry. Why? Why'd she do it?" Sam asked as they followed him.

Henry held up a small wooden box. "I think for this."

"Okay, what's that?" Sam asked.

"I wish I knew." Henry said putting the box back in his pocket. "Abaddon attacked us the night of my final initiation. All secrets were to be revealed then."

"Let me get this straight. You traveled through time to protect something that does you don't know what from a demon that you know nothing about?" Dean asked. Henry looked at him a moment then continued down the hallway to the comic book store. "Good."

Once inside the store, Henry stopped and asked, "Hand me your… walkie-talkie."

Sam looked at him confused. "You mean my phone?" Sarah tried to hide her amusement.

"Even better." Henry said, then held the phone up to his mouth and said, "Operator, I need Delta 457."

"Who are you not calling?" Dean asked.

"Our emergency number."

"Yeah. Not anymore." Dean said, taking the phone away from him and giving it back to Sam.

"They can't all be gone. There must be another elder out there who can help us figure out how to stop Abaddon and what to do with the box." Henry said, thinking out loud.

"Hey, uh, hi. Can we hijack your computer for a hot second?" Dean asked the girl behind the counter.

Henry started laughing, "Like you could fit a computer in this room."

The girl gave them a weird look but said, "Sure."

"Thanks." Dean said, turning the laptop towards Sam. "Sam."

"Yep. All right, um... give me a name – anybody who, uh, might have been there that night – one of those elders." Sam instructed.

"Um... Ackers, David. Larry Ganem. Um, Ted…"

"Okay, here it is. Um, August 12, 1958." Sam said after typing in the names. "A tragic fire at a gentlemen's club. Uh, 242 Gaines Street."

"This is 242 Gaines Street. But that was no fire." Henry explained.

"Larry Ganem, David Ackers, Ted Bowen, and Albert Magnus – all deceased." Sam read aloud from an article he'd found.

"Albert Magnus." Henry repeated.

"He a friend of yours?" Dean asked.

"Even better." Henry said smugly before walking outside again.

"You two know why he's suddenly so happy?" Sarah asked.

"Not a clue." Dean grumbled following Henry out.

From the comic book shop, they went and investigated the cemetery where the men of letters were buried.

"These were my friends, my mentors, our last defense against the Abaddons of the world." Henry reminisced.

"Here's your buddy Albert Magnus." Dean announced, shining his flashlight on a tombstone.

"Albertus Magnus. He was hardly a buddy. He was the greatest alchemist of the middle ages." Henry explained.

"Okay, so why is he buried here?" Sam asked.

"He's not. His was the alias we'd use when going incognito. I believe someone planted his name in that article... so that if a Man of Letters came looking for answers, he'd know something was amiss."

"So someone wanted you to come to this grave." Sam summed up.

"The question is why." Henry pondered.

Dean moved the beam of his flashlight to another tombstone. "What is this?"

"Our crest. The Aquarian Star, representing great magic and power. They say it stood at the gates of Atlantis itself." Henry explained.

"Hmm. It's on all the tombstones except for this one – uh, Larry Ganem." Sam observed. "LARRY GANEM, March 23rd 1926, August 12th 1958"

Henry crouched down in front of the headstone, "The Haitian symbol for speaking to the dead. This is the message. You boys ever exhume a body?"

Dean, Sam and Sarah looked at him stunned by the absurdity of the question. "I'll get the shovels." Sarah said trying to suppress her laughter.

When she returned she put the two shovels down in front of the boys and held her hand up in a fist. "Okay boys, let's see who digs first."

Sam and Dean instantly put their fists up and looked over at Henry who seemed lost in thought. Rolling her eyes, she said, "One, two, three." On three, they each displayed what symbol they'd chosen. Sarah and Sam chose rock and were shocked to see that Dean had chosen paper instead of his usual scissors.

"What just happened?" Sarah asked Sam. Dean just gave them a very pleased smile and sat down on a nearby tombstone. Sighing, Sarah and Sam picked up the shovels and started to dig.

Henry noticed them and walked over, only to take the shovel away from Sarah and hand it to Dean. "Where are your manners, boy?" he asked Dean before walking away again.

For the next hour, Sam and Dean proceeded to dig up the grave, while Dean continued to stare daggers at Sarah and Henry. When the coffin was open, Henry looked in only to tell the boys to cover it back up a moment later.

This time, Sarah was unable to contain her laughter at Dean's pissed off look.

Once in their motel room, Dean and Sarah started to research what they could on their laptops, Sam was looking through John's journal while Henry lounged on the couch whistling.

"What is that? I know that tune." Dean asked.

" 'As Time Goes By.' I hope so. It's from 'Casablanca.'" Henry replied.

"Right. Dad used to whistle it from time to time." Sam remembered.

"He hummed that the day he tried to teach me how to dance." Sarah reminisced with a small smile.

"Your father saw 'Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy' at the drive-in one night. It scared the beeswax out of him. So I got him this little music box that played that song to help him sleep at night. It worked like a charm." Henry revealed.

"Wow, it's hard to believe Dad was ever scared of anything." Sam said.

"Hey, uh, according to county records, Tom Carey lives in Lebanon, Kansas, and is a very happy 127-year-old." Dean said, closing his laptop. "I say we get some shut-eye, head over first thing in the morning."

"Wait, wait, wait. Listen to this. According to Dad's journal, he once tortured a demon that said he made his bones working for Abaddon, who, it turns out, is a Knight of Hell." Sam said.

"What does that even mean?" Dean asked.

"Knights of Hell are hand-picked by Lucifer himself. They are of the first-fallen, first-born demons." Henry recalled.

"So very pure, very strong." Sam summed up.

"Legend has it that Archangels had killed all of them, which, as we have witnessed, is not the case." Henry said standing up and walking over to the table where the others were sitting.

"Unless she's the last of her kind." Dean added.

"Great . Just what me need." Sarah mumbled.

"You say that belonged to your father?" Henry asked, gesturing to the journal in front of Sam.

"Yeah."

"May I?" Henry asked. Sam slide the journal across the table to him. Sarah noticed Dean instantly tense at Henry looking at John's journal. Sarah fought against her instant instinct to grab Dean's hand.

"It's a hunter's journal. I assume Men of Letters – you use journals, too?" Sam asked.

"I intended to. I sent away for one the day before my initiation." Henry said lifting a photograph that was tucked into the inside cover of the journal to reveal the initials 'HW' stamped in the leather. "As a matter of fact, judging by my initials here, this one, I believe."

"That was yours?" Dean asked, looking uncomfortable.

"It must have arrived after... I'm beginning to gather I don't make it back from this time, do I?" Henry pondered.

"We don't know for sure. All we do know is that Dad never saw you again." Sam replied.

"What did he think happened to me?"

"He thought you ran out on him." Dean replied bluntly.

"Dean." Sarah warned.

"John was a legacy. I was supposed to teach him the ways of the Letters." Henry said, sitting down with them at the table.

"Well, he learned things a little differently." Dean said sarcastically.

"How?"

"The hard way. Surviving a lonely childhood, a stinking war... only to get married and have his wife taken by a demon... and later killed by one himself. That man got a bum rap around every turn. But you know what? He kept going. And in the end, he did a hell of a lot more good than he did bad."

"I'm sorry. I wish I had been there for him." Henry stated.

"Yeah, it's a little late for that now, don't you think?" Dean snapped, getting and walking towards the door, picking up his jacket along the way.

"It's the price we pay for upholding great responsibility. We know that." Henry stated.

"Your responsibility was to your family, not some glorified book club!" Dean growled back.

"I was a legacy. I had no choice."

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that." Dean grumbled walking outside, slamming the door closed behind him. Sam sighed, looking down at the table, an awkward silence settling in the room.

After a moment, Sarah got up, "I'll be back." She said, grabbing her own jacket and walking outside.

She found Dean about a block away, walking down the sidewalk. Hurriedly she caught up to him, as he sat down on a bench.

"Great. You here to tell me off or something?" Dean asked as she sat down next to him.

"No. Why would I tell you off?" She asked.

He sighed. "What do you want, then?"

"I'm just here to see if my friend is okay. You see, his other grandfather has recently time traveled here and brought a whole new big bad with him. Plus, it's opened up all sorts of emotion baggage for him." She said, trying a light hearted approach.

Dean sighed, "Sarah I'm not in the mood right now."

"Hey, I get it. I love John too and I know how much it always hurt him that his dad had left. Mean, I've hated the man for that very reason, in fact, I'm not too fond of your other grandpa either. Both of them were a piece of work. But if Henry time traveling here is the reason that John grew up without his father… then I'm kinda inclined to give him some slack." Dean gave her an un-amused look. "Best thing we can do is to work together and try to gank Abaddon and keep her from killing anyone else."

"Whatever." Dean mumbled but seemed to be thinking over what she had just said.

"Okay, why don't you go and get yourself a drink. Maybe talk up a pretty girl. Then come back to the room, ready to do whatever we need to do to fix this. Okay?" Sarah asked standing up.

"Ok…." Dean said, giving her a confused look. When she turned to walk away he asked, "Wait, are you telling me to go and pick up some chick?"

Sarah turned back to look at him, "I'm telling you to do whatever it is you need to do to regain your focus." She then turned and hurried off back to the motel room. When she was there, she grabbed her bag and headed straight to the bathroom for a shower.

Once in the shower, she mentally yelled at herself. 'What am I doing? What is wrong with me? It's one thing to say I don't care to him but it's another push him toward other women.'

She spent a while in there, not wanting to face the group yet. And not wanting to see if Dean had returned yet or not. Eventually, she left the comfort of the bathroom to see that Henry was still up looking at John's journal and the boys were passed out on the beds. Putting her bag down, she realized that they should have gotten a cot for the night because Henry would be taking the couch.

Sighing, she walked over to the closet and grabbed one of the extra blanket. When she turned back around, she found that Henry was staring at the boys.

"They really are remarkable when you get to know them." Sarah said to him.

"I bet they are." Henry said, looking over at her.

"John was too."

"Were you really close to him?" Henry asked.

"I was." Sarah replied. "He saved my life and instead of dropping me off at the nearest orphanage, took me in and raised me as his own. It was hard sometimes. If you think Dean is hard to deal with right now then you should have seen John at times. But through it all I really couldn't have asked for more." Sarah said looking over at Dean's sleeping form. "You should get some sleep." She added before walking over to Dean's bed and laid down next to him. Falling asleep quickly.

"Hey. Wake up!" Sam grumbled, hitting Dean and Sarah with a notepad.

"NO!…" Sarah cried out, waking from a dream.

"What? What?!" Dean growled looking around slightly and realizing that he was spooning Sarah.

"Henry – he's gone." Sam said hurriedly.

"Where is he?" Dean asked, pulling away from Sarah.

"Well, no idea. He just left a note saying he was gonna fix everything."

"Yeah, or screw it all up. All right." Dean grumbled getting up.

Sarah sat there, staring down at the blanket lost in thought.

"You alright?" Dean asked her.

"What? Yeah. I'm fine. Just had a weird dream." She assured.

They realized soon after, that Henry had stolen an angel feather from the trunk of the impala and was going to try and send himself back to 1958. They split up. Sam went to find Larry Ganem and try to find some answers about the Men of Letters. While Sarah and Dean split up to try and find Henry at some of the local hoodoo shops.

Dean found him just before Henry completed the spell to go back to his time and when reason didn't work, Dean subdued him. He picked Sarah up from the shop she was searching.

"Did you have to knock him out?" Sarah asked as she got into the back seat.

"I had no choice." He said bluntly.

"What? Why?"

"Abaddon got Sam and wants to trade."

Sarah stared at him in shock. "Crap."

Henry stirred from his stooped position.

"Sorry about that." Dean said to him.

"No, you're not. You've wanted to do that since we met."

"Henry, you need to understand something. When my dad died, I couldn't save him... no matter how bad I wanted to. I never want that to happen to Sam... ever. If there's a chance that I can save him, I'm gonna do it. He's my brother. He and Sarah are the only family I got. I'm going to do whatever it takes to keep them safe." Dean grumbled gripping the steering wheel tightly.

"So, what are you thinking?" Henry asked.

"Can you slow Abaddon down? Because if you can, We'll do the rest." Dean replied.

Henry thought for a moment, then said, "I think I have an idea. Can I have one of your bullets? And possibly a small file." Dean gave Henry a confused look but handed over a bullet from his gun. Sarah handed over a file from her lock picking kit. "Ah. Thank you."

They watched as Henry worked.

"A devil's trap carved into the bullet." Dean said impressed as he put the bullet back in the gun and handed the gun over to Henry. "You're gonna have to get close. And 'close' means it could get ugly."

"I know. But you do that for blood." Henry replied, staring down at the gun.

"Well here goes nothing." Sarah said getting out of the impala and heading to the trunk to load up on weapons. "Okay. I'll see you boys inside." She added, heading toward the back of the processing plant that Abaddon was using for their exchange.

She quietly walked in through the back door and found a good hiding place where she could see Abaddon and a tied up Sam.

A moment later, Dean and Henry walked in through a door on the other side of the room. Dean pulling Henry along.

"Don't do it, Dean." Henry pleaded.

"Too late for that now." Dean growled.

"That's the problem with you hunters. You're all short-sighted." Henry retorted.

"Yeah, at least we're not extinct. Abaddon! I'll send Henry here over with the box. You do the same with Sam. No tricks." Dean yelled out, showing the box before placing it in Henry's jacket pocket.

"My only interest is Henry and the key. You two are free to go." Abaddon stated.

Dean gave Henry a shove but when he wouldn't move, Dean took out his gun. "You can do this standing, or you can do it crawling. Your call."

Henry reluctantly started to move forward. Abaddon released her hold on Sam and let him walk towards Dean.

Sam paused halfway, "Henry, I'm sorry."

"Save it." Henry spat.

They both continued to walk toward opposite sides of the room. When Sam reached Dean, he held out his bound hands so that Dean could cut off his restraints.

"Don't do this, Dean. This is a bad idea." Sam warned.

"Shut your mouth. Let's go. Come on." Dean ordered. They tried to leave the room but Abaddon used her powers to shut the door before they could reach it.

"We had a deal!" Dean growled.

"Surprise. I lied." Abaddon laughed before plunging a hand into Henry's abdomen.

"Henry!" Sam cried out and tried to run to help, but Dean stopped him. Sarah gripped the nearby machinery to stop herself from running over to Henry as well.

"Wait. Wait." Dean said to Sam.

Abaddon withdrew her hand from Henry's abdomen causing him to gasp and choke out a mouthful of blood.

"You're not the only one." Henry interjected before pulling a gun from behind his back and shooting Abaddon under the chin.

"Whoo! What a blast. Now, give me the box." Abaddon snapped, recovering quickly from the gunshot. She reached into Henry's jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of cards. She threw it to the ground and screamed, "Where is it?!" Her scream caused the lights to flicker and sparks to fly. "Okay. We can do this the hard way."

She grabbed Henry's chin and attempted to breathe black smoke into his mouth, but it seemed to meet with an invisible shield. She shoves Henry and he fell to the ground. Sam and Sarah ran to Henry and supported him. Abaddon tried to move, but seemed to be held in place. She screamed again and more sparks flew from the lights.

"Why am I stuck?!" Abaddon shrieked. "You still didn't kill me."

"No, but you'll wish we did." Dean said before cutting off her head with a machete that Sarah handed to him. "The demon trap in your noggin is gonna keep you from smoking out. We're gonna cut you into little steaks and bury each strip under cement. You might not be dead, but you'll wish you were."

"We did it." Henry breathed out.

Dean crouched down in front of Henry, "No, you did it. For a bookworm, that wasn't bad, Henry."

"I'm sorry I judged you two so harshly for being hunters. I should have known better."

"About?" Sam asked.

"You're also Winchesters. As long as we're alive, there's always hope. I didn't know my son as a man, but having met you three..." Henry said taking Dean's hand with his right hand and holding out his left hand to Sam and glanced over at Sarah. "…I know I would have been proud of him." He finished before dying.

Sam and Dean looked at each other, then down at the box that Henry had placed in Sam's hand.

At the cemetery, Sam, Dean and Sarah worked together to dig the grave for Henry and marked it with a cross that Sam made from some boards he'd found. He even carved the Men of Letters emblem on it with 'H. Winchester'.

"I get it now." Sam stated.

"Hmm?" Dean asked.

"What Cupid said about heaven busting ass to get Mom and Dad together. The Winchesters and the Campbells…" Sam replied.

"The brains and the brawn." Sarah added.

"Well, I'm glad you see it. All I see in our family tree is a whole lot of dead." Dean said before taking out a photograph from his pocket. "Hey, I, uh... found this in Henry's wallet."

"Dad looks happy." Sam said handing the photo to Sarah. It showed Henry and John holding a baseball and a bat when John was young.

"Kind of makes you wish he knew the truth, huh? I mean, all those years thinking his old man ditched when the poor son of a bitch really came here and saved our bacon. Freaking time-travel, man." Dean said.

"You think it would have made a difference?" Sam asked.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Dad. If he'd had his own father around."

"What, in how he raised us? Sammy, he did the best he could." Dean replied.

"I know that. I – I do. They all did." Sam stated, taking out the box from his pocket.

"What are the chances that place is still standing?" Sarah asked.

"A chance we've got to take, I guess. I mean, we are legacies, right?" Sam replied.

They reached the coordinates that Larry had given Sam a little after dawn. It took them to a large bunker. They got out of the impala and walked towards the entrance of the bunker which had an impressive door that looked like it belonged on a bank vault.

"When's the last time somebody was in this place?" Dean asked.

"Sixty-five, seventy years ago." Sam estimated.

"The anticipations killing me, boys. Shall we?" Sarah interjected.

Dean opened the box and took out the key before walking down a short flight of stairs to the door. He unlocked the door and the three of them walked inside the dark room, pulling out their flashlights and started to look around.

They shined their flashlights over a railing at the level below them, revealing 1950s-style communications equipment.

"Son of a bitch." Dean mumbled.

"You can say that again." Sarah said staring in amazement at her surroundings.

"Look at this. Ham radio, telegraph, switchboard. This was their nerve center." Sam added.

"Henry did say that they ran dispatch on their own team of hunters." Dean said, before he shined his flashlight on a table containing a chess board, ashtray, glass and a dirty coffee cup. "Wow. Halfway through their coffee and a game of chess – looks like whoever was manning the hub left quick."

"On the alarm call that ended the Men of Letters." Sam added.

Dean opened a switch box on the wall and pushed a lever. The lights come on.

Sam and Sarah walked down the stairs and looked around at the room, neither knowing what to say about what they saw. Dean pushed the other lever in the switch box and more lights come on.

"Whoa…" Sarah muttered in awe.

"Son of a bitch." Sam mumbled.

Dean joined them downstairs and they walked to the doorway of a large, attractively furnished room with bookshelves, polished wooden floors and large wooden tables.

"Guys, I think we found the Bat Cave." Dean gaped.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

_"Guys, I think we found the Bat Cave." Dean gaped._

* * *

Dean walked into the 'Bat Cave' room, wearing a gray bath robe and slippers. Sarah and Sam were sitting at one of the tables with books spread around them.

"Morning." Dean said in a very good mood.

"Morning." Sam and Sarah said in return.

"The, uh, water pressure in the Letters' shower room is marvelous." Dean informed them.

"Yeah. I still can't figure out how we even have water... or electricity." Sam said, walking over to the shelves to get another book.

"It could be something mystical. They were alchemists, weren't they?" Sarah asked, looking up from her book for the first time and noticing Dean's attire and noticing how sexy it made him look.

"Yep, well, I am putting that under the "ain't broke" column. Listen, you two, let's not go all geek on this stuff, okay?" Dean said, before noticing a sabre sitting on a display stand.

"Geek?" Sam asked, walking back over to the table and handing Sarah another book to look through.

"Yeah. Yeah, I mean, don't – don't get me wrong." Dean said, lifting the scimitar off its stand and playing with it. "This stuff is awesome, and it looks like they ran a real tight outfit here, but I'm just saying, you know, don't, uh, don't think that they knew some big secrets that we don't know."

Dean struck a pose with the scimitar while Sam and Sarah weren't looking at him, but as Sam turned, Dean quickly straightened up.

"Dean... they were a secret society." Sam replied.

"Which means that they made crap up and wore fezzes and sashes and swung around scimitars. They probably didn't even sharp–" Dean said, running his finger along the blade and cutting himself. "That's very sharp." He replaced the scimitar on the stand.

"Smooth." Sarah said sarcastically.

"Dean, look, I think we might have something here – something that could help us, help humanity. Henry certainly thought so. I mean, you know damn well we could use a break. What if we finally got one?" Sam asked and stared at Dean for a moment before Dean looked away. "Are you gonna take off the dead-guy robe?"

Sarah rolled her eyes at them. "How about, Dean and I go and get some modern conveniences for this place?" Both boys turned to look at her. "You know, a fridge, microwave, maybe a washer and dryer. I'm sure we could rig one up in here somewhere." When they both didn't say anything, she added, "Unless you like walking around in clothes that haven't been washed in sixty years and sleeping on musty sheets."

"Alright, fine. I'll go get dressed." Dean grumbled, "Can't let me just enjoy the moment, can you?"

Hearing him mumble, Sarah said, "Nope", making sure to pop the 'p'.

* * *

Over the two next weeks, Sarah managed to get the Men of Letters bunker functioning as a decent home base. She got the kitchen cleaned up, removing 6 or 7 decades worth of dust and grime. She got the gas refilled and working on the stove range. She set up a microwave and a new refrigerator that was stock full of beer and food.

A week in, Dean took off to check on Kevin and left Sam buried in the Men of Letters books and Sarah to look after him.

* * *

"Hey!" Dean called out to Sam as walked in after being gone for a week.

"Hey! So... how's Kevin doing?" Sam asked, looking up from his laptop.

"You know. He's okay, I guess. In his corner, hacking out his Da Vinci code – nothing actionable yet." Dean said, taking a beer out of the mini refrigerator in the Men of Letters study. "Garth says hi, by the way. Anything from Cas?"

"No. Not – not a peep. Why? You?" Sam asked.

"No, he's, uh – he's not answering."

"Right. Well, uh, so I have been" Sam said as Dean sat down opposite him at the table. "trying to chart out the Letters' network of hunters, their allies, uh, affiliated groups they worked with, kept files on…"

"Circa 1958?"

"Yeah. True. Uh, most are dead or defunct, but others – I'm not so sure, and this one... you should definitely check out." Sam said putting a file on the table in front of Dean.

"The Judah Initiative?" Dean asked.

"European team – they were active during World War II."

"Really? Hunters fighting in a war – that's cool."

"Not exactly hunters, n-not exactly fighting, but, uh..." Sam trailed off.

"Rabbis? Rabbis?" Dean asked skeptically, reading from the file. "Really?"

"The Letters' file on them is – is sketchy, but, apparently, they were hard-core saboteurs. So, I ran a search on the Initiative's entire roster, and I got a hit – one Rabbi Isaac Bass. He was 17 years old when he joined the Initiative and 85 years old when he died... two weeks ago."  
Sam said turning his laptop around so Dean could see. "In a college town back east, he was capped."

"Capped?"

"Yeah. He was there doing research, and according to eyewitnesses, he spontaneously combusted."

"So… this is a case?" Dean asked, looking around the room reluctantly. "I just got back." He sighed knowing that Sam would not let it go. "Fine. Where's Sarah?"

Sam paused before answering. "She's around. Been working hard at cleaning this place up."

Dean nodded, "Alright, get ready. I'll go find Sarah and tell her that we're heading out."

He searched around and found her in one of the bedrooms, hunched over at a writing table, as if she fell asleep while cleaning out the drawers. He watched her for a moment and saw her start to shake and moan.

"Sarah. Sarah, wake up…" he said shaking her shoulder a little.

Grabbing his arm quickly, Sarah twisted it taking Dean by surprise and rushed forward pinning him to the wall. His arm still twisted up behind him.

"Sarah! Hey! It's me! It's Dean!" he yelled out. She only pushed his arm up farther. She grabbed a knife from its sheath on her hip and raise it up above him.

"Dean!" Sam yelled rushing into the room and pulled her off of Dean. She struggled against him, managing to flip around in his grasp and head butt him. It gave Dean enough time to maneuver his arm around her neck and cut off her air supply enough to subdue her. "What the hell did you do?" Sam asked shocked.

"I don't know. I tried to wake her up and she just went all crazy on me." Dean replied just as shocked.

Sarah slowly began to regain consciousness and groggily looked around at the boys. "Um… guys? You know it's creepy to watch a girl sleep right?" She asked as she rubbed her neck but grew concerned when she noticed how pissed off they looked. "What? What happened?"

"What happened?! You just tried to kill me, so why don't you tell us what happened." Dean growled back.

Sarah looked at them shocked. "What? Are you drunk? I didn't just…" She trailed off deep in thought.

"Hey, don't deny it. We both had to fight you off." Dean grumbled.

"Dean." Sam said, seeing that she was trying to work out something in her head. He crouched down in front of her. "Sarah, what is it? What are you thinking about?"

She looked up at him as if she were a little scared, "It's… It's… it's just… never mind. It's too absurd."

"Tell us what is absurd." Sam instructed, glancing up at Dean for a second.

She looked between them for a moment before saying, "Well, I was dreaming, it's been happening a lot lately…"

"What dreaming? Shocker. You dream when you sleep." Dean said sarcastically.

"Dean." Sam warned. "Go on, what were you dreaming about?"

"Well, they were more like nightmares." She said cautiously.

"Spit it out already." Dean growled.

"I kill you!" She yelled at him, tears filling her eyes. "Over and over again. Night after night. Each time a different way."

They stared at her again in shock. "For how long?" Sam asked.

"A few weeks now." She whispered.

"What did I do that would make you want to kill me now? I thought we were doing ok lately. Especially after…" Dean trailed off giving her a look. "You know… after larping." Sam rolled his eyes at Dean.

"We are doing good." Sarah hurriedly replied, tears now starting to spill.

"Then why do you want to kill me?"

"I don't! It's just these dreams. I swear I don't."

Dean looked at her uncomfortably. "Alright. Well, Sam and I are gonna go on this hunt. You stay here and figure this out."

"What? Dean, we can't just leave her here like this." Sam protested.

"Remember spontaneously combusting Rabbi's. We gotta go." Dean grunted, putting up his walls.

Sam was about to protest again, but Sarah put her hand on his arm to stop him. "No, Sam. It's fine. You two need to go do your job. I'll be fine. I promise." When he still looked like he was going to protest she added, "I still have so much to do here. I'll see you two in a few days."

Sighing, Sam got up and left the room, following Dean.

"Oh, Cas. I know I don't deserve to ask you for anything else, but please. I need you. I need your help." She prayed but wasn't surprised when he didn't appear. She had prayed several times a day since he disappeared and he hadn't answered yet.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

A few days later, Sam and Dean returned to the bunker and immediately went to check on Sarah.

"Hey boys." Sarah said, a little more subdued than she normally would have. She was standing in front of a large crate that she was digging through.

"Hey Sarah. How ya feeling?" Sam asked, looking her over, seeing the dark circles under her eyes and her slow, tired movements.

"I haven't figured out the cause of my dreams yet." She stated flatly, not looking up from what she was working on.

"Are you still having them?" Dean asked.

"Yeah."

"Are they still the same? You killing Dean?" Sam asked.

Sarah sighed, "No. I've had a different one."

"What? Now your killing Sam?" Dean asked sarcastically.

She turned to look at him, "No. This one has a woman in a suit using some sort of drill and she's trying to extract information out of me."

"A drill? What was she a dentist?" Dean asked sarcastically.

"Not a tooth drill, Dean. It was long and horrible looking and she drilled into my brain from the corner of my eye! Just be happy you two weren't here for that one." She explained, then added, "I broke a glass with my scream."

"Oh wow. I'm sorry, Sarah. We shouldn't have left you alone." Sam said, throwing a look at Dean. "Have you tried calling for Cas?"

"I've been trying but he's still not answering." Sarah said feeling deflated but decided to change the subject. "I've cleaned out all of the bedrooms and picked out the ones that I think you two would like."

"Really?" Dean asked, perking up.

"Come on, you two look like you need some rest." Sarah said leading them from the room. She showed the boys to two of the rooms that were close to the library and command room. "Sam, I've put your stuff in this room. I figured you'd like this one with all the bookshelves."

"Wow. Thanks Sarah." Sam said as he walked into his room and looked around.

"I tried to find you a bigger bed but there wasn't anything bigger in here. One day I'll try to get you a king size one for your gigantor frame." Sarah offered with a chuckle.

"Don't forget about me. I'm tall too." Dean huffed.

Sarah rolled her eyes at him. "You get so whiney when you're tired." She teased. "Come on, your room is over here. It's the first one in the hallway."

She lead him to his room and watched him turn into a little boy. He walked in and almost started jumping on the bed. Sarah left him to get settled and walked back down the hallway to continue working on sorting through all of the Men of Letters crates.

After a while, Dean called down the hallway to her, "Sarah! Come and get it!"

She made her way to the Library and was hit with a mouthwatering smell. "What smells so good?"

"Dean made dinner." Sam said with a mouthful of burger.

"Really?" she asked, taking a seat at the table across from the boys. Dean pushed a plate toward her. "Thanks." She mumbled after she took a big bite.

"You're welcome." Dean said proudly. He was about to take a bite himself when his cell phone began to ring. He sighs but pulls his phone out of his pocket. "Yo." He instantly tensed. "What? Kevin! Kevin!"

"Something wrong?" Sam asked.

"Guess." Dean grumbled shutting his phone off before standing and leaving with his plate.

"I guess you two are heading out again." Sarah mumbled, as she watched Sam get up too.

"Go get your stuff." Was all Sam said as he walked off with his burger.

They arrived at Garth's house boat to find it eerily quiet. Dean lead them as they searched the perimeter and rooms with their guns drawn.

"Kevin? It's us." Sam called out. They looked around the main compartment and saw all of Kevin's notes taped to the walls.

Dean opened a door and everyone could hear the sounds of someone throwing up. "Found him." He said. Sarah and Sam walked over and looked in to see Kevin bent over the toilet throwing up.

"Oh, Kevin!" Sarah cried out, pushing past Dean and entering the small run down bathroom. She grabbed a nearby towel and wet it down with cold water before placing it on Kevin's neck.

After Kevin finished throwing up, Sarah helped him to get cleaned up before they joined the boys in the main room.

"Wow. You look like hammered crap." Dean said as Kevin took a seat at the table and wiped his bloody nose with a tissue.

"Yeah." Kevin agreed, sounding very nasally.

"Are you sleeping?" Sam asked concerned.

"Not really."

"Are you eating?" Dean asked.

"Hot dogs, mostly."

"Oh, gross." Sarah mumbled grimacing.

"Sure, yeah - breakfast of champions. Look, I'm gonna feel dirty saying this, but you might want a salad and a shower." Dean stated.

"I know, and I've been getting bad headaches and nosebleeds, and I think maybe I had a small stroke. But it was worth it." Kevin explained.

"What was worth it?" Sarah asked.

"I figured out how to close the Gates of Hell." Kevin said with a smirk.

"You…" Dean started to say surprised. Sam, Kevin and Sarah all start to chuckle. A smile spread across Dean's face, "Come here, you smelly son of a bitch." He pulled Kevin into a bug hug, lifting him off the ground.

"Way to go, Kevin!" Sarah said rushing over to him and pulling him into a hug too.

"Okay, okay. So, what does this mean? What are we looking at?" Sam asked.

"It's a spell."

"And?" Dean asked.

"And it's just a few words of Enochian, but..." Kevin said giving a piece of paper to Dean.

"Oh, here we go." Dean said.

"...the spell has to be spoken after you finish each of the three trials." Kevin instructed.

"T-trials like, uh, like "Law & Order"?" Sam asked, snatching the paper from Dean's hand.

"More like Hercules. The tablet says, 'Whosoever chooses to undertake these tasks should fear not danger, nor death, nor...' A word I think means getting your spine ripped out through your mouth for all eternity." Kevin explained.

"Good times." Dean sighed.

"Basically, God built a series of tests, and when you've done all three, you can slam the gates."

"So, what - God wants us to take the SATs?" Sam asked.

"I-I guess. Uh, he works in mysterious ways." Kevin answered.

"Yeah, mysterious, douche-y ways. All right. Where do we start?" Dean asked.

"I've only been able to crack one of the tests so far, and it's gross. You've got to kill a hound of hell and bathe in its blood."

"Awesome." Dean replied.

"Awesome?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Hey, if this means icing all demons, I got no problem gutting some devil dog and letting Calgon take me away." Dean expressed.

"Where are you gonna find one?" Kevin asked.

"Well, Hellhounds like to collect on crossroads deals. So all we got to do is track down some loser who signed over his special sauce 10 years ago, get between him and Clifford the big dead dog - easy." Dean said a little too happy.

"Doesn't sound easy." Kevin stated.

"It's not." Sam and Sarah said in unison.

"Look, you get on the net" Dean instructed to Sam, '- see what you can dig up. I'm gonna go for a supply run because we need goofer dust, and the kid needs to eat something that's not ground-up hooves and pigs' anuses - not that there's anything wrong with that." Then he left.

"Great. It's been far too long since I've messed with Crowley." Sarah mumbled then looked up at Kevin. "Ok, it looks like you haven't showered in weeks and I bet it's been a while since you've washed any clothes, too. So, you go gather up your clothes. I'll make a run to the laundromat." Kevin just stared at her. "Come on, scoot."

Sarah returned to the house boat with Kevin's newly cleaned clothes and walked in to hear Dean say, "Yeah, you had me at 'weird.' All right. We thinking deal?"

"Best lead we've got." Sam stated.

"Well, let's go visit the Beverly Hillbillies. You stay here, work on step number 2, and, uh, if you come across anything about Hellhounds, drop a dime, okay? 'Cause between the - the claws and the teeth and the whole invisibility thing, those bitches can be... real bitches." Dean said, before reaching into a bag and pulling out two bottles. "I got you a present." He gave one bottle to Kevin. "The, uh, blue ones are for the headaches, and the Greens are for pep. Don't O.D." He then smacked Kevin's arm and walked toward the door.

"Thanks?" Kevin said, confused.

Sarah place the bag of laundry on the floor, "I guess I'll see you later, Kevin. Be good."

Dean stopped in his tracks, "Actually, Sarah , I need you to stay here and keep an eye on Kevin."

"What? You've got to be joking!" She said then saw the look in Dean's eyes. He had made up his mind. "No. You need me on this one."

"No, Sam and I got this one."

"I'm sorry, but out of all of us, who has actually killed a hellhound?" she retorted.

"Yeah, with a little heavenly help." Dean retorted back.

"I still have more experience than you!"

"Sarah, you're not at full strength. I know you're not sleeping because of the nightmares and it's making you sloppy. I don't have the time to watch out for you while we hunt a hell hound. So you're staying and that's final!" Dean commanded before walking out. Sam gave one of his trademark 'sorry' faces before following Dean outside.

"That man is insufferable!" she growled.

Sarah and Kevin spent most of that day in silence. Kevin quietly worked on translating the tablet and Sarah did what she'd been doing more and more of lately. Clean. Every now and then she'd mumble something about Dean, showing how upset she was to be left behind again.

After several hours' worth of cleaning and hustling about, plus several days with very little sleep, Sarah finally crashed. She was sitting at the small table with Kevin and was doing research on his laptop when suddenly she couldn't keep her eyes open. She fell into a deep sleep.

She awoke the next evening to hear Kevin on the phone with Dean.

"Sorry. Um, I found something on the tablet, uh, about Hellhounds. Uh, this mean anything to you – 'the dire creatures may be seen only by the damned or through an object scorched with holy fire'?" Kevin said into his phone.

"Like with holy oil?" Sam asked.

"It's got to be. We could use a window." Dean guessed.

"Or glasses." Kevin suggested, as he watched Sarah sit up and rub her eyes.

"I think we've still got some Jesus juice left in the trunk. All right, I'll take care of the, uh, the X-ray specs. You stay here. Do not let J.R. and the gang out of your sight, all right?" Dean said to Sam.

"Right. Hey, Kevin, uh, you did great, man. Get some sleep." Sam added.

"Okay. Tha…" Kevin started to say but Dean cut him off.

"Hey, real quick, how's your house guest behaving?" Dean asked.

Kevin's eyes flashed over to Sarah, to see if she was listening. She was. "Oh, um… good. She's been asleep."

Sarah threw a glare over at him, "You say another word to that jerk and I'll knock you into next Tuesday. If he wants to know about me so badly then he shouldn't have left me."

"I gotta go." Kevin said before hanging up the phone. He then addressed Sarah, "You're testy when you first wake up."

"I just don't appreciate being left out for no reason." She grumbled to him.

"I'm sorry, Sarah, and please don't hit me for saying this but I think he had a point."

"Oh yeah? And what point would that be?" She countered.

"Just that you weren't really looking at the top of your game."

"Really? You are going to talk to me about looking bad?" She retorted.

"Look, all I'm saying is that maybe I'm not the only one that needs some r&r." Kevin countered.

"Don't you have more translating to do?" Sarah said exasperatedly. Kevin sighed and reached for one of the pill bottles that Dean had given him. Sighing herself, she noticed how aggravated she was making Kevin and it pushed her thoughts again to the fact that she should be with Sam and Dean hunting the hell hound. As she was thinking about that, she reached forward to take the pill bottle away from Kevin when her hand grazed the tablet, next thing she knew she was standing in a barn that she'd never seen before.

"What the hell?" she mumbled, falling into a nearby hay bale with tingling sensations running through her body. She sat there for a moment trying to get her bearing's when she heard the growl of a hell hound. Jumping up, she rushed toward the sound into an open room in the barn. The sight of the hell hound stopped Sarah in her tracks. She was stunned that she could actually see it, but was snapped back to what was happening when she saw the hell hound stalk toward an injured Dean.

Running forward she barreled into the hell hound, knocking it away from Dean. Sarah and the hell hound tumbled a few times before they landed in a heap. The hell hound on top of her now. It snarled down at her and Sarah grabbed it's neck to keep it from biting her. It then slashed its claw across her left arm causing her to cry out in pain.

Two shots rang out and the hell hound jumped back a little and redirected toward Sam. Sam rolled over and picked up the demon killing knife from the ground and used it to cut the hell hound open. Covering himself in its blood. Once it was dead, Sam tossed it to the side where Sarah watched as it disintegrated into the ground.

They all sat there for a moment catching their breaths. "You two alright?", Sarah asked slowly getting up, keeping her bleeding arm tucked close to her body.

"I'm fine." Sam breathed.

Dean let out a small sound of pain as he adjusted to sit up, his hand on the bleeding wound on his left side.

"Dean, you're hurt. Let me see." Sarah hurried over and pulled his hand away from his wound with her good hand. "Sam, find us something to stop the bleeding."

Sam stared at her for a moment before hurrying off to do what she asked. Dean stared back a her in shock. "Sarah, what the hell are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay with Kevin."

Sarah sighed, "First of all, I'm getting sick of you telling me what to do and leaving me behind." She pushing both of their hands back on his wound, causing him to suck in a breath.

"You didn't answer me." Dean grunted.

"Oh my god, Dean!" a woman called out as she rushed to them. Sam following behind and handing Sarah a towel. The woman watched as Sarah placed the towel over Dean's wound. "Who are you?"

"I'm Sarah." Sarah informed the girl not looking up from what she was doing. "Okay, Sam, help Dean get up. We need to get him patched up before he loses more blood." Sam moved to Dean's other side and put Dean's arm over his shoulder before helping him to stand up. Sarah kept pressure on Dean's wound and asked the girl, "Do you have a first aid kit anywhere?"

"Yeah, follow me." She stated, leading them down a hallway to a bedroom. They helped Dean to a table and the girl placed a med kit on the table next to him.

"Ah, thanks…"Sarah said realizing that she didn't know the girl's name.

"Ellie." She supplied.

"Thanks, Ellie." Sarah said, moving to open the med kit only to be reminded that one of arms was injured when pain shot up through it. "Ah!"

"Here let me." Ellie said, opening the kit and pushing Sarah out of the way a little.

Sam wiped some of the hell hound blood off of his hands on a towel then grabbed Sarah's good arm and pulled her to sit next to Dean. "This is a pretty nasty gash, Sarah."

"I'll live." She mumbled as he helped her take off her jacket. He then started pouring alcohol on her gash. "Ah!"

Dean's phone began ringing from his pocket. He managed to dig it out of his pocket and answer before it stopped ringing, "Kevin?" Everyone could hear Kevin's manic yelling. "Kevin. Kevin, slow down. What happened?" Dean listened for a moment before slowly turning to look over at Sarah. "Don't worry, she's here…. Yeah, I don't know either but I'm going to find out." He said before hanging up.

"So, what now?" Ellie asked, not noticing Dean's attention was on Sarah.

"Now we make a hex bag, and you start running. If Crowley can't find you, then he won't be able to sic another mutt on you." Dean replied, pulling his shirt back down over his bandages.

"So I'm not going to hell?" she asked.

"Not on my watch. Will you give us a minute?" Dean asked.

"Sure." Ellie said.

"Thanks." Dean added, before she walked out the door. "Okay, Sarah what the hell happened? Kevin's back at the houseboat freaking out because you just disappeared from in front of him."

"I don't know what happened. One second I was arguing with Kevin and the next I was standing in a barn." She explained.

"Really?" Sam asked. "You think it was Cas or something?"

"It would have to be him or another angel, right? Unless I've suddenly developed the ability to teleport." She said sarcastically.

"What, you think this is like your new abilities, like seeing demons and being able to feel angel warding?" Dean asked.

"What? No. No. I don't think so." She thought. "Hey did you two see the hound practically melt into the ground after Sam killed it?"

"You could see the hell hound?" Sam asked, "Without any special glasses?"

"Yeah…"

"Man, I really wish Cas would show up and help us figure out what the hell is going on with you." Dean grumbled before snapping his fingers at Sam.

Sam sighed, "The spell's not gonna work for you, Dean." Dean snatched the paper from Sam's hand. Dean ignored him and read aloud, "Kah-nuh-ahm-dahr." He looks around but there's no response. "Doesn't matter. We'll track down another Hellhound, and I'll kill it."

"No." Sam said firmly. Sarah noticed the tension building between the boys.

"Sam, I didn't pass the test." Dean retorted.

"But I did... And I'm doing the rest of them."

"My ass you are!" Dean growled.

"Whoa. Calm down. What is going on with the two of you?" Sarah asked moving between them.

"I'm closing the gates." Sam stated over her head, ignoring Sarah. Something crossed over Sam's face, as if something just dawned on him. "It's a suicide mission for you."

"What? Sam, that's not true. Right, Dean?" Sarah asked turning to look at Dean but was shocked to see it confirmed what Sam had said. "Dean?"

"Sam..." Dean sighed. Sarah shook her head and walked away from them to lean on the table.

"I want to slam hell shut, too, okay? But I want to survive it. I want to live, and so should you. You have friends up here, family. I mean, hell, you even got your own room now. You were right, okay? I see light at the end of this tunnel. And I'm sorry you don't - but it's there. And if you come with me, I can take you to it."

"Sam, be smart."

"I am smart, and so are you. You're not a grunt, Dean. You're a genius - when it comes to lore, to - you're the best damn hunter I have ever seen - better than me, better than dad. I believe in you, Dean. So, please - please believe in me, too." Sam begged. Dean sighed but gave Sam the paper with the spell on it.

Sam looked down at the paper for a moment the read, "Kah-nuh-ahm-dahr." There was a whooshing sound. Sarah turned back around to see Sam's eyes practically bug out. He twisted around, fell down to his knees and grunted in pain.

"Sammy?" Dean yelled as he and Sarah rushed to his side. Sam only grunted in pain. "Sam!"

They hear a crackling sound. The veins in Sam's right hand and arm started to glow with bright white light as he cried out in pain.

"You okay?" Sarah asked.

Sam continued gasping as the bright white light disappeared from his hand and arm. He clenched a fist and stood up.

"I'm good. I'm okay. I can do this." Sam stated, exhaling sharply.

Dean and Sarah shared worried looks but neither of them said anything.


End file.
